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Chapter Text

It hurts. I hurt. Wei Wuxian looked at the destruction around him. Dead bodies everywhere. They deserved it. All of them. They killed my shidi and shimei. They killed Jiang Shushu and Madame Yu. They burned down my home. They threw me into the Burial Mounds and left me for dead. He snorted at that. Now they’re the ones who are dead. I killed them. With no sword: just a flute and some of my favorite citizens of the Burial Mounds. He wanted to laugh. He wanted to cry.

He wanted to curl up into a little ball and sleep and only wake up when this aching, echoing abyss inside him healed. Or he got lost forever in it. 

He was hungry. So incredibly hungry. He had tried not to eat in that endless gloaming. Hunger drove him to try the few wilting plants and the bugs and creepy crawlies that hid under rocks and fallen trees. The dead he befriended offered him flesh. He had been so hungry…. So tempted to ignore this final taboo and feast on maggot infested flesh. He feasted on the maggots instead, popping them between his teeth. A few times he caught fish. Skeletal and slimy, more bones than meat. There were so few fish to be found. 

He was hungry. The soldiers would have rations in their qiankun pouches. The supervisory office had a kitchen; there would be fresh food waiting for the soldiers who would now never eat it. Or food waiting to be cooked. He scavenged the dead for coin, for clothing, for travel safe food. In the kitchen, he shoveled cold rice into his mouth, enjoying the bland taste after so many days without it. Heaven. There were fresh buns all rolled up and waiting to be steamed; he found the steamer baskets and started heating water. “Tonight I shall eat like a king.” There was dried meat hanging; he was too hungry to cut it up and cook it. “Maybe I should have left one or two of them alive so they could cook for me,” he mused as the water started giving off small whisps of steam. 

He was hungry. He ate until his concave stomach was visibly bloated. He vomited most of it back up, his stomach unable to digest so much food all at once. 

Then he packed. Clothing that looked like it might fit him, was clean, and didn’t have the Wen brand. A bedroll that looked more clean than dirty and didn’t smell bad. Blankets that also looked and smelled clean. He could wash them later now that he had money to spend. A knife went into each sleeve. Food went into special pouches already covered with preservation talismans. Wine… it was barely palatable. But it filled the hole in his soul, made his stomach glow with a warmth that nowhere came near to approximating the warmth of a Golden Core. It was all he had. 

All he would ever have, now.

He was smarter with the next Supervisory Office. “Where is Wen Chao?” he asked the last man alive.

“I don’t know!” the man squealed and pissed himself again.

“Find him. Tell him I’m looking for him. I’m going to kill him.” Behind him, the scarlet woman ghost hissed and licked her face of blood. At his feet, a child ghoul grinned around the hand he was eating. The soldier ran off into the night, the smell of urine drifting in his wake. 

Food . He’d planned this attack to occur just before dinner was served. The kitchen aromas set his mouth watering. Fresh rice and meat. He was more careful this time; he didn’t want to waste good food now that he had a source for it. The wine, somehow, was even worse than before; it was sufficient to get him drunk. He awoke, fuzzy mouth and throbbing head, relieved the corpses of their coins and food, and set out. He had a direction now; the soldier the previous night ran east.

So east he would head, too. He had enough money, now, to stay in inns on the nights he wasn’t fluting his ghosts to execute the soldiers in Supervisory Offices. He felt mildly… disturbed… at stealing for a living. They stole from me first. My home, my family, my core. It’s not stealing. It’s… repayment for damages they caused.

A week after escaping the Burial Mounds he found them: Wen Chao and Wen ZhuLiu. The Wen spare babbled wildly conflicting orders to his subordinates. The protector stood guard, face stony. Wei WuXian lightly jumped to the roof of a barn and set his flute to his mouth. There was a plant in the Burial Mounds (he’d discovered it the hard way) whose sap would cause skin to blister and hair to fall out. He fluted a request to one of his ghosts to run her cool hands, covered in the sap, over Wen Chao’s head and any exposed skin. He could almost hear the skin crackling. Given time, the skin would heal…. Wen Chao would not be given time.

The ghoul child, emboldened perhaps by the screaming man, leaped forward and ripped a boot off. Though but a child of perhaps six or seven when he died, he had the strength of an adult undead and was able to hold Wen Chao’s leg long enough to take several bites before the bloodied foot broke free and kicked him away. “Good boy,” Wei WuXian crooned as the child scampered up the building to sit at his side. “Do you like your treat? You can eat as much as you want.” The Core Melting Hand flew his master away to safety. “You can follow him, my friends,” Wei WuXian stated, standing up and brushing dirt from his skirts. He didn’t need to be present for his ghosts to keep rubbing the sap on any exposed part of Wen Chao’s body, nor for the child to continue to eat the man. He followed at a leisurely pace, sometimes getting close enough to play his flute in warning before Wen ZhuLiu flew them away. 

Torturing Wen Chao was fun . His pain and suffering was but a small portion of the amount he owed for the pain and suffering he had caused. But then… he met up with his girlfriend.

Wang LingJiao cried loudly upon seeing her lover’s visage destroyed, skin blackened or red and peeling. By this time, the child had eaten every toe and one complete foot. Wei WuXian decided he needed to stay closer to the trio… give her the same opportunity to be tortured. 

She, however, wasn’t going to be tortured physically. No. Wei WuXian played his flute while she slept and sent her nightmares. She’d wake, panicked, to find ghosts reenacting her dreams. The night she finally went insane, she dreamed of leaving her lover. Upon waking (or was she still dreaming?), she tried to pack her belongings; the ghoul child hid inside her jewelry box. Hid under her bed, so that only his gleaming eyes could be seen. Mind fractured, she broke every piece of furniture trying to kill the ghoul. Wei WuXian’s eyes glowed blood red as he fluted her to her death. Eat it, he commanded. She must have been at least partly dead because she obeyed his order, picking up the leg of a stool and shoving it down her throat. Good girl.  

I should have branded her face first he realized only after she was cold to the touch. Let her become what she wanted for MianMian in the cave. He could still brand her face, of course. But what was a brand to a corpse? Nothing. It was the living being who would be shamed and hurt at seeing her face become ugly. Uglier. 

The child crept into the room holding what appeared to be part of a leg. He gnawed on the end, started sucking out the mucus. “Is that Wen Chao’s?” The child grinned. “I hope you don’t get sick.” Wei WuXian patted the happy child on the head. “Shall we continue to torture him? Or should we just kill him?” The child looked down at the leg, looked down at his bloated belly, belched, and looked up, accusingly, at his master. “Ahh… little one…. There are plenty of Wen cultivators for you to eat if I kill this one. You won’t go hungry. I promise.”

It was long past the dinner hour. The kitchen fires were down to coals, and the leftover food was cold. He’d eaten far worse than cold rice and gelatinous soup before. “It still tastes better than that medicinal food they serve in the Cloud Recesses,” he informed his ghosts. There were large pieces of pork in the soup. “Ahh… if you were alive, I’d promise to take you to my shijie once this is all over. She makes the best soups. Especially her….” his voice trailed off. He had no idea if she was alive or dead. He had no idea if any of his friends were alive or dead. “Anyways… she’s a great cook. The best. I know I promised that I’d set you free after this is all done…. But… maybe we can renegotiate a bit? ShiJie is the best woman alive and that… jerk… insulted her. Maybe torturing the idiot would be a bit extreme, but just a little bit of pain before we kill him? 

“Yeah… you’re right. ShiJie would be rather mad if I killed him. For some stupid reason, she still loves the asshole.”

Chapter Text

I survived. Somehow. Wen Chao was dead. Wen ZhuLiu was dead. Lan WangJi was… disappointed. At least that hasn’t changed. I’ve been a disappointment to him since I first climbed over the walls. For a few breaths he’d been certain Lan Zhan was going to kill him. For some reason, that made him start laughing. Just think. I survived being eaten by a water abyss and the Xuanwu of Slaughter. I survived my home burning, and being half choked to death. I survived giving up my Core and being thrown into the Burial Mounds. Only for Lan Zhan to glare me to death.

“What’s so funny?” Jiang Cheng grumped.

“Nothing,” Wei WuXian chortled. “I’m just happy to see you again. It’s been too long.”

“We’re headquartered at the Unclean Realm for now. We can stay here tonight and fly out tomorrow.”

Wei WuXian swallowed a spurt of fear. He doesn’t know. Of course he doesn’t know I can’t fly! He wanted to laugh, to cry, to scream. Suibian was at his side and was as useless as a shoe to a man with no legs. “I… can’t. Not yet,” he lied. “My spiritual energy is too low after all that time.”

Jiang Cheng stirred the fire. “Were you really thrown into the Burial Mounds? I don’t want to believe it, but… the soldiers at the Indoctrination Center were so sure.”

Wei WuXian didn’t nod or shake his head. “Would it make a difference if I had been?”

“Of course it makes a difference!” Jiang Cheng shouted. “There are so many people who think you just wandered off to play for the past four months!”

“I did what I had to do to survive,” Wei WuXian talked his way around the question. Their birthdays were so close together, and yet…. He felt years older. Perhaps it was from giving up his Core. Or perhaps it was those months spent trying to survive. Had he really spent only three months in there? It felt like years!

I’m cold. So cold. So tired of it all. Alcohol was a pale imitation of a Core. QingheNie’s wine was good and there was plenty of it. It numbed the aches, numbed the cold, numbed the insults hurled at him for not carrying his sword. ‘I can’t!’ he wanted to yell at them. I gave away my Core. I’m going to grow old and die while you all look young and healthy. “I did what I had to do to survive.”

“Wei Ying…. Consuming so much alcohol is not healthy.”

Wei WuXian looked at his friend with blurry vision. One of the great things about not having a Core anymore was he got drunk a lot faster than before. “Go away Lan Zhan. I’m drinking.”

“You should stop.”

“There’s lots of things I should do,” he agreed pleasantly, and drained the jar. “You’re not my parent nor my sect leader. Half the time I don’t even think we’re friends. Stop telling me what I should be doing. I already know what I should be doing.”

“And what is that?” the second jade sounded slightly exasperated.

“I should find another jar!” Wei WuXian stood and swayed for a bit. “Wow. Was that an earthquake? Strange how the ground under my feet was shaky, but you didn’t move at all…. Why do you suppose that is?” He was quite proud of the fact that he wasn’t so drunk as to be slurring words yet. Walking, on the other hand, was going to be a challenge given the number of earthquakes happening beneath his feet. 

“Where is your sword?”

Wei WuXian’s face twisted in thought. “I hope it’s where I left it. It would be awfully horrible for you and Jiang Cheng to go through all that trouble to get my sword back only for someone to steal it again! What do you think, Lan Zhan? Do you think there’s a thief here who stole my sword?”

“Go to bed, Wei Ying. You’re talking nonsense.”

Wei WuXian beamed with pride. “My specialty! My one true gift from the gods!” He tried to bow, overbalanced, and nearly rammed his head into a wall. “Well… I’m off to find another jar or three. I can still walk and talk, so I’m not nearly as drunk as I want to be.”

“Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan chastised.

“Lan Zhan,” Wei WuXian echoed in as close a tone as he could muster. 

Lan WangJi blinked his golden eyes a few times. “Why do you need to be drunk all the time?”

“Stops the nightmares,” Wei WuXian answered semi-honestly. “You can’t know what I’ve seen. What I’ve done. I did what I had to do…. I see it again. Every night. Feel it again. So much pain. So much hatred. So much blood. And death. Over and over. You don’t understand. You’ll never understand. So cold. All the time. Like I’m living in winter even in the hottest summer days. Wine… stops it all. For just a little bit, I can sleep with normal dreams. For a short while, I’m warm. For a short time, I don’t feel like every bone in my body has been shattered to pieces and has yet to heal.”

“Wei Ying….”

“I don’t want your pity!” he shouted. “Don’t you fucking pity me! I’m handling it the only way I know how. I just have… just have to get past it. A few more days at least. I figure out how to control the nightmares. And then?” He was breathing heavily, too fast. He could feel his heartbeat racing.

Lan WangJi reached out a hand briefly, and then dropped it to his side before Wei WuXian could process it. “I will meditate with you. Help you clear your spiritual pathways and soothe your mind.”

Wei WuXian stared at his comrade in arms for a few wild blinks before bursting into hysterical laughter. He wants to meditate with me? Clear my meridians? How? Lan Zhan… ‘attempt the impossible’ is the Jiang motto, not yours. “I’m not a child anymore,” he chastised. “I don’t need help meditating!”

“You need something!” the jade retorted.

“I need more wine!” Wei WuXian agreed and stomped off.

More fighting. A skirmish here. A battle there. Without a sword, he resorted to openly using his demonic cultivation. His ghosts and ghouls surrounded him as he raised the dead Wen to fight against their former comrades. Lan WangJi dogged his steps, arguing constantly about how resentful energy destroys the mind, destroys the body. ‘I know that!’ Wei WuXian wanted to scream. Do you think I don’t know what I’m doing? I created this! Do you think I can’t feel what it’s doing to my body? Do you think I can’t feel my mind slipping out of my grasp? Do you think I want to be like this? 

His supposed allies were, rightfully so, upset at the use of demonic cultivation. At first. But then the generals and sect leaders decided they were going to be magnanimous and accept it since it was helping them to win the war. At the same time, they insulted him for refusing to carry his sword. As if they didn’t know the two were incompatible with each other. They saw him going slightly insane every so often and accepted it as a necessity of war.

Between battles, and when not marching, he’d creep away from the camp to try to regain his sanity. Not that anyone actually cared if he would fully go insane as long as he continued to win battles for them. I’m so cold. So tired. I just… want to sleep. I want my Mama…. He could feel tears welling up in his eyes. Mama? Can I just… sleep? When this is over…. When we’ve won…. Can I sleep? So tired…. Will you come visit me like my ghosts and sing me a lullaby? One time is all I ask. One lullaby, and I promise I’ll be good and go to sleep for you.

Wei WuXian’s eyes crossed then refocused. The Wen sect leader was dead, lying in a pool of blood of his own, a short man holding a bloody sword standing over him. Hurts. Can’t breathe. He coughed a few times, as if his body was trying to force his airways open after being almost choked to death. Hurts to swallow. Hurts to breathe. Is it over? He picked up his head enough to see the battle was winding down. The Wen were surrendering. Good. He laid back down, exhausted. I can sleep now. It’s over.

I’m over.

Mama? Does it hurt worse than this? His body tried to force him to swallow again. Hurts so bad…. I just want it to be over. Can you hold me until it’s over? I don’t want to be alone. Not at the end… please. His brain must be acting funny from lack of breathing earlier. A blurry woman knelt at his side, caressed his face. “XianXian… It’s not your time yet. Rest, Baobei.” 

He must be hallucinating…. That wasn’t a woman; that was Lan Zhan. “Lan Zhan? Is it over? Can I sleep now? So tired….”

“Rest, Wei Ying,” came the low voice. “Just rest.”

Chapter Text

Lan WangJi watched as his nemesis was carried off the battlefield towards the Healers’ tents. Wei Ying’s ‘Can I sleep now?’ bothered him deeply. It didn’t sound as if he had meant sleep. It sounded as if he had meant a more permanent version of sleep…. On good days, he and Wei Ying would merely quarrel about using yin energy, about wine. On bad days? They fought. Wei Ying was loudly adamant that he was in control, that he knew what he was doing, to stop treating him like a child…. Does he mean to die now? Is that the price he thinks he had to pay to use the yin energy? Lan WangJi twisted his dirty skirts almost straight. You’re not going to die. I will bring you back to the proper path. 

He didn’t really understand Wei WuXian. Never had. So loud and cluttered. Messy. Completely unaware that there was this invisible circle that surrounded everyone, and no one was allowed inside without an explicit invitation. Or, if he was aware of it, he acted as if he had been invited in a long time ago.

It was infuriating.

He had little self-discipline. And what little discipline he had, he made sure was full of laughter and movement. No sense of stillness and peace.

It was infuriating.

What was even more infuriating was… when Wei Ying was gone from Cloud Recesses: his invisible circle was never breached again. There was no more laughter. Nothing to disturb his peace. And he’d dream….

Horrid dreams where he’d shut Wei Ying’s laughing mouth up by kissing him. Kissing him? How can I dream of kissing someone when I have never kissed anyone before? How would I know what it feels like… tastes like… to suck on his tongue? How can I feel… hot and wet when I dream of shoving my cock in his mouth? What kind of monster am I for dreaming about raping him? The dream memories of seeing Wei Ying’s backside red and swollen and seeping blood and semen should have been enough to send him into secluded meditation for months. Instead… It made him want to shove his cock into Wei Ying’s tender hole even more…. To see if Wei Ying would be just as aroused by it in real life as he’d been in the dream. 

The healer was still holding Wei WuXian’s wrist when Lan WangJi strode into the tent. “Jiang Guniang, Jiang Gongzi… Wei Gongzi’s meridians are highly unstable. His Core is not responding to my touch. I fear the use of the yin energy has done immense harm to his spiritual pathways…. My first priority is to let him rest and heal as much as he can over the next few days. Then we can start to work on getting him back to a healthy weight before I would suggest he even attempt to start meditation sessions. Let the physical body heal first and the spiritual body will heal as well.”

“But… Xu Daifu… Shouldn’t we heal his spiritual pathways first? So his Core can aid in healing his body?”

The healer stroked his long beard. “Normally, I would agree, Jiang Guniang. However, the body is… troubled. It is clear Wei Gongzi has not been eating properly, and his liver is rotting with liquor. If he doesn’t fix those first, whether or not he has clean spiritual pathways will be irrelevant. To be perfectly honest? He’s going to die from liquor poisoning long before he dies from yin energy attacking his Core.”

“Let me take him to Gusu,” Lan WangJi found himself begging. 

Jiang WanYin puffed his chest out and stared daggers at the jade. “Gusu? You’ve been yelling at him to go with you to Gusu since the night we killed Wen Chao. He doesn’t want to go. I think he’s made himself very clear on the matter.”

“A’Cheng…” Jiang YanLi laid a hand on her brother’s arm. “This is different. The war is over, now.”

“Of course it’s different! We need him in Lotus Pier! I need him. We will have new disciples to train. Almost the whole place will need to be rebuilt. I can’t have my right hand gallivanting off in Gusu when I need him with me.”

“Wei Ying won’t recover like that.” More words tripped over themselves, tangled up with each other on their way out of his closed mouth. If you take him home… He’s just going to keep drinking himself to sleep every night. He needs the peace I can give him in my home. That was a slightly unsettling thought. He’d meant ‘home’ as in ‘Cloud Recesses’ but the image sparking in his brain was of Wei Ying living in the Jingshi. 

Sleeping in his bed.

Naked. Moonlight whitening the skin on his back. A narrow Lan Sect ribbon tied loosely around one wrist, marks on the other wrist indicating they’d both been restrained. Blankets tangled around his knees and calves. He hoped his arousal wasn’t showing through his clothing or on his face.

“Cloud Recesses is peaceful. The Cold Springs are designed to heal the body and decrease damages to the meridians. Our food is designed to be nourishing. No wine.”

Jiang WanYin scoffed. “Nourishing? Tasteless more like. Wei WuXian hated that food.”

“Can bring chili oil and spices,” Lan WangJi conceded. “Can go to Caiyi or Gusu for meat dishes once he’s feeling better.” The idea of Wei Ying eating a dish covered in chili oil sent a rush of… something… across his body. The absolutely terrifying thought of kissing him, licking the red spice from his red lips…. Titillating. Pain and pleasure together? What is wrong with me that I want to try it?

“Please,” Jiang YanLi interrupted his thoughts. “Please take him to Gusu with you and help him heal.” She gave a sharp look at her brother. “It is more important that he be healthy when he returns home than that he returns home immediately.”

Xu Daifu agreed. “Lan ErGongzi…. Your clan has healing songs, correct? Please play for him for a few hours each day. When he wakes and is coherent for more than a few minutes, you can take him to Gusu for further healing.”

He had Wei WuXian ensconced in what had been an outer disciple’s house: Weifengshi. That disciple had perished in the early part of the war, and had no family to take it. It had the added benefit of being away from other houses in case Wei Ying started screaming with his nightmares. “A whole house to myself?” Wei WuXian wasn’t smiling as he explored the dust covered space. “Even as a guest disciple, I wasn’t given a whole house to myself.”

“Cleaners will come later today.” Lan WangJi swallowed around the words jumbling in his mouth. Can I stay with you? It will be easier for me to take care of you if I’m here. Please say no. It’s difficult enough to want you from a distance. If I were allowed to be with you all the time? “A tailor will come tomorrow to fit you for robes more befitting your status here.”

“Gotta clean the jail cell, huh?” Wei Ying sounded hurt. “I didn’t realize prisoners were so well treated here.”

“Not a jail cell.” I would never force you to stay here against your will. I…just want you to heal. With me. Stay with me. Stay forever.  “Not a prisoner.”

Wei Ying grinned. It didn’t reach his eyes. “Of course you have to say that.” He took another turn around the room. “ShiJie wouldn’t stand for it. So Jiang Cheng wouldn’t stand for it. The YunmengJiang’s Head Disciple imprisoned by the GusuLan for his heretical cultivation? What utter nonsense! GusuLan has no authority over YunmengJiang!” He sighed and looked up at the ceiling. “Except when a YunmengJiang disciple turns out to be a demonic cultivator who needs to be put down. Much easier to send him away and let memories of him fade before quietly executing him.”

“Not a prisoner. No execution. Just healing.” Lan WangJi took out a jade token from his lapel and placed it carefully on a table. “Wei Ying can enter and exit Cloud Recesses as he pleases. Your mail will not be read. Please don’t bring meat or alcohol here.”

“No wine? I don’t have any money to buy it anyways.”

From the same lapel pocket, Lan WangJi took out a money purse and placed it next to the token. “This was taken from your tent before it was packed up. If you need more, just ask.” If you need me, just ask. I will come to quell your nightmares. I will help you meditate. I will sit in the Cold Pond with you. Practice swordsmanship or archery with you. I will play music with you. Ask me for anything… and I will probably give it to you. 

Why? Wei WuXian! Why do you invade my soul like this? The urge to push Wei WuXian up against the nearest wall and kiss him until they couldn’t breath was nearly overpowering. I want…. I want to feel what it’s like to be pressed against you. I want to know what you taste like. I want to know if you’ll surrender to me or try to fight me off. Or if you’ll fight to get closer to me.

Why? Why do I want this? It makes no sense!

Chapter Text

For a prison, this quiet little house on the edge of the compound wasn’t bad. The name, Weifengshi, suited it very well: gentle breezes breathed through the trees surrounding the house. He much preferred it over a more traditional, dungeon style prison with cold, dank cells, watery gruel and molding food, too thin blankets, chains attached to his wrists or ankles, and the lack of privacy and toilet facilities. He had a small front garden with a solid fence to give him some privacy. And a larger back garden with a meditation trail carefully marked out with white pebbles. In the very back of the garden there was even a burbling brook and a log carefully carved so one could sit down and allow the brook’s song to assist in meditation without overly dirtying one’s clothing. 

He spent many shichen with his skirts tucked up around his belt and his trousers rolled up past his knees walking in the brook looking for fish or sitting on its banks letting the cool water tickle his feet. 

The token he left on the table, not sure if it was real or fake. Not sure if Lan Zhan was lying to him about being able to freely leave the Cloud Recesses or if someone was lying to Lan Zhan. 

Or… perhaps the token was genuine, and he was only a prisoner in his mind. 

Lan Zhan didn’t lie: it was against the Rules.

His jailers certainly didn’t seem like proper jailers, either. He had a manservant knock politely on his door every morning to clean the house. The man went about his job acting as if Wei WuXian was an outer disciple or honored guest, not a dreaded demonic cultivator. Several times a day junior disciples arrived with meals or snacks; they appeared to be more afraid of him than the manservant was, stuttering and tripping over their legs like newborn horses. (Perhaps it was awe rather than fear?) Jailers should not be afraid of their prisoners. The food was awful, as expected, made edible only by the jar of chili oil that accompanied each meal. There was also a distinct lack of beatings…. Aren’t prisoners supposed to be beaten on a regular basis? At the very least, shouldn’t they be punishing me for my demonic cultivation?

Instead of being punished, he was serenaded. Technically, Lan Zhan was playing Healing songs to help his body, or Cleansing songs to eliminate yin energy from his meridians. But as there was no Core for them to latch onto? The music was soothing, at least. Sometimes an older junior disciple accompanied Lan WangJi and he was the one performing.

The last song of the day was always the same. If there was a junior disciple, he was sent away before Lan WangJi played it. “This is my favorite piece,” Wei WuXian sighed sometime during his third week. He received a wordless hum as a response. In the sixth week, Wei WuXian found a memory creeping into his awareness. "You sang this to me when we were trapped in the Xuanwu of Slaughter’s cave, didn’t you? You were supposed to tell me the name.”

“I did.”

“Oh.” If you say you did, then you did. “I guess I was too sick to pay attention. You could tell me the name again…” he hinted.

“I could,” Lan WangJi agreed pleasantly.

Which for some reason sent Wei WuXian into hysterical laughter. “Lan Zhan! Why does no one believe me when I say you’re funny? ‘I could’.” He chortled for a long while before composing himself. “You wrote it, didn’t you? Is that why you won’t tell me the name? The song is lovely, but the name is embarrassing?”

“Wei Ying, don’t tease.”

“There isn’t much for me to do here except tease my guests,” Wei WuXian responded as lightly as possible. “I’ve read every book, twice. Found all the pebbles that got knocked off the meditation path and put them back. I’ve caught five fish. Don’t worry, I set them all free. Too small to eat, anyways. Teasing is all I have left.”

“Get more books from the library.”

Wei WuXian blinked a few times at his friend and chief jailer. “You say that like it’s possible.”

“Wei Ying is not a prisoner. Can leave this house as he pleases. Can leave Cloud Recesses as he pleases.”

Wei WuXian frowned. “Don’t tease, Lan Zhan. Not about my freedom. Tease me about anything else, but not that.”

“Not teasing.”

“I can just… get up and walk away? Go home to Lotus Pier? Go to Caiyi and get drunk?” Prisoners aren't allowed to leave as they please. Or… are my executioners waiting for me to leave? Would that make it more plausible? Less of an execution, more of an accident? I leave Cloud Recesses and there’s ‘accidentally’ a rock slide that takes me with it? Or I’m crossing a high bridge and it ‘accidentally’ breaks? Or some yao overpowers me before their cultivators can get to it? 

“Please don’t drink alcohol. Your body is not healed enough. Wait until your Core is functioning normally again, so it can help you process liquor.”

“My Core?” Wei WuXian wasn’t sure if his eyes were watering from laughter or anguish. “My Core is never going to handle anything again.”

Lan WangJi frowned. “Wei Ying is no longer using yin energy. Once your body is healthy, you can meditate again and clean up your spiritual pathways. Your Core will reject the remaining yin energy.”

“Yin energy damages the body and soul… you kept saying that during the war. And now you think….” He laughed at the emotional pain stabbing him right in his empty lower dantian. “My Core will never recover. I will remain a demonic cultivator for the rest of my life. I can’t go back to using spiritual energy.”

“You don’t know that.” Lan Zhan’s golden eyes seemed to flash with fury. “With meditation and hard work….”

“Lan Zhan. Stop. I will never be able to use spiritual energy again. Or do you think you understand the price I paid better than I do?” He firmed his voice, let his own anger and frustration show. “I made my decisions, knowing all the consequences of my actions. You only look at the results and question me? Tell me I don’t know exactly what I have done to myself?” He slumped, exhausted both in mind and body. “Please leave.”

He must be really upset with me. It was raining out, making Wei WuXian’s mood even more sour. The rain here wasn’t like it was in Lotus Pier, where the rain hitting the ponds was a soothing melody. Here it just made everything smell muddy and earthy… like freshly dug graves. For the past four days, only a junior disciple came to play the healing songs. I don’t care if you’re upset, Lan Zhan. He gave himself a firm mental pat on the shoulder. You think you know everything. You act like you know everything. T he Great HanGuang-Jun and the Quest for Perfection . I bet someone will write that book about you. Poor students who will have to read it! They’ll write about how strong you are and how morally straight you are. So kind that you even tried to heal a demonic cultivator you had taken prisoner. The rain was coming down harder now: in sheets almost, graying out his back garden. Puddles formed in his meditation path, pushing the white rocks out of alignment. Puddles formed in the grass. “Poor worms are probably drowning out there. The birds will be feasting once the rain lets up again. Imagine if the ‘no killing in Cloud Recesses’ was forced onto the animals here.” He laughed, holding his hand out to be rained on. “They’d all starve to death. Creatures are made to eat meat. I’m a creature. I’m made to eat meat.”

He’d started dreaming of food, in amongst the more gorier nightmares. Crackling duck skin. Dumplings and buns overflowing with pork or beef. Fish head soup. Roasted pheasant and chicken. Meat soups of all kinds. Stir-frys and sauces so spicy his tongue tingled in remembrance for days. The chili oil helped make the food here edible. There was a world of difference between food cooked with spices and food with spices dumped on top. I miss Shijie’s soup. I miss her peeling lotus seeds for me. I miss fooling around with Jiang Cheng. I miss teaching my shidi’s how to use their swords and bows. 

I miss Lotus Pier. I miss my home. He looked at the jade token, untouched since the day Lan WangJi placed it there (well, untouched except for when the manservant moved it when dusting the table). Lan Zhan doesn’t lie. So… I can leave? Am I a prisoner here or not? 

Am I imprisoning myself?

Chapter Text

A Lan junior entered the house, quietly, as they all did, with his lunch the following day. “Wei Gonzi? May I ask a question?”

Wei WuXian was lying on his bed, feet propped up against the wall, head hanging down the side of the bed. “Of course.”

“Grandmaster Lan said you’re a decent archer,” the disciple spoke quickly.

“First: decent archer? What an insult! Second: what’s your name? Third: what does your grandmaster want from me?”

“Lan DeLi.” The disciple bowed properly. “Grandmaster Lan suggested you might be willing to assist the sect and teach archery.”

“He did?” Wei WuXian swung his legs down and body around so he could look at the disciple right side up. “And what do you think of that suggestion, Lan DeLi?”

The disciple placed the lunch tray on the dining table. “I would very much like to have an archery teacher, Wei Gongzi. Our previous teacher did not survive the war.”

“If I’m going to be your teacher…” Wei WuXian did his best to look stern. “You will call me Laoshi instead of Gongzi.”

“Yes, Wei Laoshi!” The junior uncharacteristically looked so happy, a broad smile lighting up his face. 

Wei WuXian ate his food quickly, and casually strolled to the gate. No guards. Is it really that easy? Am I really going to be allowed to simply leave this place? He snickered to himself. Is Grandmaster Lan so lacking in instructors that he’d allow me to influence his baby disciples? Or is he upset that I’ve been just sitting here for months doing nothing? He stepped through the gate. No alarms. I don’t feel like I set off any wards? Can I still feel them without a Core? He mostly remembered the way to the archery butts… but from the guest disciples housing, not from here. Nor did he know how to get to the guest houses! The path ended at his house, though, so following it in the only direction it led seemed like the best option. 

He didn’t quite blend in with the rest of the men walking around. His robes were white, as were everyone else’s. His inner roes, though, were black, which was not a color seen on any GusuLan disciple. In addition, they wore their white ribbons tightly around their foreheads and their hair tied in varying degrees of elaborate guans, while he simply had his hair pulled up into a ponytail held by a white ribbon. A helpful disciple gave him directions to the archery grounds, which were far easier to get to via the disciple housing than the guest housing. 

Teaching little ones…. And some not so little ones…. He’d loved this part of being YunmengJiang’s head disciple. He was a good teacher, if absurdly unconventional for GusuLan. There were elders who heard the shrieks of laughter coming from the mouths of the littlest ones and frowned. They’d see the older children running around chaotically in between archery stations and want to interrupt. The oldest junior disciples could be found nowhere near the archery butts, instead they’d be found learning how to make and fly kites near waterfalls. 

“Did you want me to teach them or not?” Wei WuXian demanded when he was hauled before Lan QiRen and lectured at for over a sichen.

“I want you to teach them. Properly,” the elder insisted.

“Properly!” Wei WuXian scoffed. “What part of my teaching is not proper? Do your archers merely stand in place when fighting a battle? Because Jiang archers shoot on the run. Or on horseback. But you don’t have space to practice shooting from a running horse here.”

Lan QiRen snorted. “Proper is proper. Flying kites is not archery.”

“That’s why your lot did so poorly in the Qishan competition last time,” Wei WuXian snorted right back. “Kites move. Like real people. It takes an immense amount of skill to be able to feel the wind and predict where the kite will be, and then hit the kite. As the kite flies further out, the stronger the archer has to be to reach the target. YunmengJiang can boast of having the best archers because we train for real battles, not to stand in one place and hope the enemy doesn’t move once the battle begins.” He deliberately left off the benefit of being able to predict where an animal would head, as hunting for food was forbidden. 

At the thought of hunting, his mouth started watering. Pheasants roasting, juices dripping making the fire spit.

I should test out the token…. See if I really can go anywhere. The need to drink himself into oblivion hadn’t lessened one iota; the desire for meat had only increased in intensity. He could go hunting outside Cloud Recesses and cook himself some proper food. Or head down to Caiyi and pay for someone else to cook it for him.

A few days after he’d been cleared to teach as he pleased, he returned home to see Lan WangJi standing by the gate. “Lan Zhan!”

The jade’s mouth twitched in what might be suppressing a smile. “Wei Ying.”

“I’m teaching your juniors now,” Wei WuXian motioned for his friend to enter his yard. Are we friends? I suppose we are unless he says we’re not! “Some of your elders are very stodgy, you know. Expecting the best archer in the jianghe to teach boring and predictable GusuLan archery instead of the vastly superior YunmengJiang techniques?”

“Some sects prefer techniques to remain proprietary.”

“Shooting kites isn’t proprietary. We did it in Qishan, remember?” Once inside, Wei WuXian hesitated. “Should I make tea? I don’t think I have any snacks around to go with it, though.”

Lan WangJi kept his eyes on the floor. “Would Wei Ying like to go to Caiyi with me? We can eat dinner in a restaurant there. Stay overnight. You can do some shopping if you need it.”

“Leave Cloud Recesses?” Wei WuXian nodded. “Sure. Can I have a drink while I’m there?”

“One jar. No more.” Lan WangJi allowed, his face appearing to lose some of its tension. 

Wei WuXian was excited to leave the Cloud Recesses, even if just for a night. It was nice having Lan Zhan around again. He had missed their afternoon music sessions, missed spending time with the other. He hadn’t missed their arguments…. 

It was strange to see Lan XiChen, Lan QiRen and several other senior disciples waiting at the gate to the Cloud Recesses. Lan XiChen’s smile outweighed Lan QiRen’s overt disapproval. 

“Lan Zhan? What’s going on?”

Lan XiChen answered for his brother. “We were headed to Caiyi to meet up with Nie ZongZhu and Nie HuaiSang to travel together to Lanling to attend the Jin’s night hunt on Phoenix Mountain. However, WangJi encountered a bit of trouble while he was away, so we’ll have to arrive a bit late. There are prisoners under guard in Caiyi and witnesses I would like to speak to before we escort them to Koi Tower.” He paused, looking at his brother and perhaps receiving an answer. “I would appreciate hearing your thoughts on the matter, Wei Gongzi.”

Lan WangJi gave his brother a curt nod. “Agree.”

Lan QiRen sniffed. “We’re wasting time.”

As the Lans stepped through the gates and onto their swords, Wei WuXian murmured, “I can’t fly.”

“I know. Will take Wei Ying.” And the younger man found himself pulled by the elbow through the gates and then up onto Bichen.

Strange. Lan Zhan doesn’t like people touching him, but…. Why is he insisting on taking me? I could just as easily fly with one of the others. Well, maybe not just as easily. Lan Zhan is absolutely a stronger and faster flier than everyone else here. He swallowed, suddenly feeling a bit nervous. 

More than a bit nervous. He could feel his hands starting to shake and his skin felt clammy and fear-cold instead of just wind-cold. I’m going to be sick. He felt a knee give out, and the arm holding onto him yanked him up.

“Wei Ying?”

“Just a…. Don’t mind me. Suddenly reminded of my last flight. It wasn’t pleasant.” Wei WuXian gripped the arm holding him tighter as the other knee gave way. 

“Wei Ying? What happened on your last flight?”

“Not much, really.” He tried to keep his voice sounding jovial; it came out at a higher than normal pitch. “Just… Wen Chao’s minions didn’t hold me as tightly as you are. That’s all.”

“Wen Chao’s minions?”

“Yeah. We flew over the Burial Mounds and… then I wasn’t flying anymore. I really don’t want to talk about it.”

Bichen dipped; with his free hand, Lan WangJi motioned that he was fine to his brother. “We can walk.”

“We don’t need to walk!” Wei WuXian protested. He only half meant it. By now his stomach had joined in the ‘let’s not behave’ game and was threatening to shove its contents out one direction or the other. Once on firm ground, he rubbed his belly, hoping it would assuage the upset feeling and let him keep some of his dignity.

“Wei Ying…. The soldiers at the Indoctrination Center when we retrieved the swords…. They said Wen Chao threw you into the Burial Mounds. I had thought it hyperbole…. But….”

“Yeah, we were flying pretty high when they tossed me in. Did you know the human body makes pretty interesting noises when it hits the ground from an extreme height? You break a lot of bones, too.”  Don’t make me talk about it. Please. I… I see it so often in my nightmares. I feel it. Feel my bones shattering. Hear my own screams. I wake up to those screams. 

“Wei Ying….”

“Don’t pity me,” he hissed. “Don’t you dare pity me.” He started walking in what he hoped was the way to Caiyi.

Chapter Text

The inn in Caiyi was completely full. Half of the common room was filled with Lan cultivators. The other half…. Wei WuXian didn’t get a good look at them before he was whisked up the stairs, but they all looked (and smelled) like they were in desperate need of several baths and strong soap. Upstairs he found an odd situation: a Jin disciple was bound with spiritual binding rope and gagged. A man and a woman, as dirty as the people down the stairs, were huddled together. Lan XiChen, Lan QiRen, Nie MingJue, and Nie HuaiSang stood, talking quietly together.

“Ah, you’re here,” Lan XiChen welcomed them with a weak smile. “Wei Gongzi, I am really interested in hearing your thoughts. Wen Gongzi? Would you tell your story?”

Wen Gongzi? What is a Wen doing here in Caiyi? Shouldn’t they all be reflecting or something back in Qishan? The young man who bowed to Lan XiChen seemed familiar. Where have I seen him before? “Wen Ning!” He called out, suddenly remembering helping the young man a few years back.

And then he remembered who the woman was, too. And where he had last seen them. A feeling of dread crept into his belly. Why are Wen Qing and Wen Ning here in an inn in Caiyi? More importantly, why are they here with two sect leaders, two heirs and a grandmaster? Who is this Jin? 

“Wei Gongzi, hello.” Wen Ning replied. “Lan ZongZhu…. My story?” He recited a tale that, condensed and without stuttering, boiled down to ‘he was living peacefully with his sister and extended family when the tied up Jin led a bunch of disciples to round up everyone in his village. A few of the older men were killed outright. A few of the younger, prettier, women were taken into houses where they screamed for hours as Jin disciples paraded in and out. The women never left. What remained of the villagers were tied together and forcibly marched from their homes. The man in charge wanted to go night-hunting for a bat king and intended on using the villagers as bait. However, just after the creature started attacking the helpless men and women, men in white appeared. Lan ErGongzi slew the bat king while the others captured and restrained the Jin.’

Wei WuXian turned wide eyes upon Lan WangJi. So heroic. He must have looked so fierce and beautiful while fighting that bat king! I wish I could have seen it…. Fighting the bat king, that is. Not seeing Wen Ning and his family being used as bait. It wasn’t fun being the bait when Wen Chao did it to us. I can’t imagine being bait for a bat king would be pleasanter. More pleasant. 

The Jin was struggling against the bindings, mumbling against his gag. Nie MingJue ripped the cloth down, “Do you have anything to add to this?”

“Do you know who I am?” the young man tried to yell, but his voice came out raspy from lack of spit. Wei WuXian stifled a laugh; he sounded rather like an angry alley cat. 

Nie MingJue nodded. “You’re Jin GuangChen’s son: Jin ZiXun. Sixth in line to be Jin ZongZhu, seventh if Jin GuangYao is legitimized.”

“Exactly! Let me go!”

“Murdered and raped innocent civilians. Attempted to murder more. Must stand trial.” Lan WangJi stated. 

“I didn’t murder or rape anyone!” Jin ZiXun protested.

“Permitted the rape and murder.” Lan WangJi sounded bored. 

“It’s not murder if it’s animals,” Jin ZiXuan proclaimed. “I just went hunting using some animals as bait. A few attempted to bite me when they were corralled, so we had to put them down. Animals must never be allowed to injure their masters.”

“Animals?” Lan XiChen asked softly. 

“Wen dogs,” Jin ZiXun replied.

Wei WuXian could see that Nie MingJue was conflicted. His normal angry expression was twisted just enough to show hesitation and confusion. He’d spent most of the war proclaiming ‘death to the Wen dogs’, and with good reason. Sort of. Wen Xu’s army attacked the Unclean Realm, and was barely defeated. Rumors abounded that Wen RuoHan was indirectly responsible for the Nie sect leader’s father’s death. However… the war was over. Wen RuoHan and his sons were dead. A fight with Wen RuoHan should have ended with his death. Not be pushed onto his people. Also, with one exception, the ‘Wen dogs’ used as bait on this night hunt weren’t cultivators who had fought in the war. They were civilians, villagers. 

And while Wen Ning was a cultivator, he had actively acted against his uncle and sect by aiding Jiang Cheng in the aftermath of Lotus Pier’s destruction. Not that anyone else here knew what the Wen siblings had done for Jiang Cheng. The young sect leader certainly never praised the Wens for their actions, and Wei WuXian…. “Wen Qing and Wen Ning are good people,” he interjected. “When Wen Chao and his army attacked Lotus Pier, it was Wen Ning who rescued Jiang Cheng and I, and took us to his sister for healing and protection. Wen Qing was the head of a Supervisory Office; if she’d been caught hiding us, we would all have been killed. Wen Ning was also the one who removed Jiang Shushu’s and Madame Yu’s bodies from Lotus Pier before Wen Chao and Wang LingJiao could desecrate them.”

“Healing?” Lan WangJi asked.

Wei WuXian threw a quick ‘do not contradict me, please’ glance at the Wen siblings. “Jiang Cheng was injured and feverish. And I had been strangled.” He left out exactly who had strangled him, because it really didn’t matter anymore. “She healed us. And hid us for a few weeks until we could leave undetected.”

Lan XiChen sighed. “So Wen Daifu and Wen QiongLin were your allies?”

“Yes.”

“Jin ZiXun… even in war, the murder of civilians is impermissible. We are at peace. Why would you think using people as bait on a night hunt was acceptable? Wen Chao used your cousin, my brother, and others as bait in one of his night hunts. We loudly condemned his actions then, and still loudly condemn those actions now. Why would you imitate him? Did you think because your sect leader now wants to be Xiandu, it’s suddenly permissible?”

Jin ZiXun sneered. “My uncle will applaud my actions. His son was used as bait; now Wen dogs are! It’s justice!”

“Then your uncle is no better than Wen RuoHan,” Wei WuXian retorted. “And you are no better than Wen Chao. I killed him for what he did to me and my sect.” He fiddled with the flute at his waist. “Shall I offer you the same mercy I showed him?”

“Wei Ying,” Lan WangJi practically growled a warning. 

“Lan Zhan,” the younger man echoed. “Wrong is wrong regardless of the sect that does it.” If I had my ghosts here? I wouldn’t hesitate to have them lead you to the same fate, he mentally chastised the Jin. Both Jin: the one in front of him and the one who would authorize this. 

“Wei Gongzi is correct,” Nie MingJue stated. “It was wrong for the Wen to use my brother as bait for the XuanWu of Slaughter and it is wrong now to use civilians as bait for that bat king. Jin ZiXun must be held accountable for the deaths he caused.”

“A trial, DaGe?” Lan XiChen asked.

“Yes.” Lan WangJi was satisfied with this resolution. He would have preferred to simply run the obnoxious Jin through a few times with Bichen until he stopped twitching, but…. GusuLan and LanlingJin were not at war. Social niceties must be observed.

“My uncle will acquit me,” Jin ZiXun boasted. 

“Then we will have the trial in a neutral location. I propose Lotus Pier as Jiang ZongZhu has not heard any of the particulars of this case.’

“Yes,” Lan XiChen agreed, and gave a questioning look towards the Wen siblings. “Is that acceptable?”

“Yes,” Wen Qing responded for them both. “My people? Will they be safe if they return home?”

“They are witnesses,” Nie MingJue replied. “They will come with us to give testimony. As will the Jin cultivators who were captured and the Lan who took them.”

Lan XiChen sighed. “I’ll send a fast disciple to stop Jiang ZongZhu before he goes to Koi Tower for the hunt.”

“Send one to Lanling, as well. The hunt will probably be postponed. I can’t imagine Jin ZongZhu allowing his nephew to be tried without his presence,” Nie MingJue agreed.

Chapter Text

Lan WangJi was satisfied with this resolution. He would have preferred to simply run the obnoxious Jin through a few times with Bichen until he stopped twitching, but…. GusuLan and LanlingJin were not at war. Social niceties must be observed.

More importantly, the death price for this odious creature would be greater than the actual value of his life. One should not spend coins frivolously. Also, I would probably be punished with seclusion for a few months, and I can’t afford the time. Wei Ying should be free of the yin energy by now, and his Core should already be well on its way to full recovery. And yet… He glanced at Wen Qing who was now quietly eating her dinner with her brother. He had left Cloud Recesses to find her: the foremost expert on Golden Cores. That she was a relative of his now dead enemy was irrelevant. She has to have a cure for Wei Ying.  

It hadn’t exactly been transactional, this agreement to help Wen Daifu find her brother and the rest of the Dafan villagers. He would have done it regardless, but… She had tried to make her part conditional upon finding her family. So now they were reunited. It would take a week, perhaps, to get all approximately one hundred prisoners, witnesses, guards, and sect leaders and their entourage to get from Caiyi to Lotus Pier. Three or four people could travel the same distance much faster. E specially if Wei Ying allows me to carry him on my sword. Maybe I can blindfold him so he can’t see how high up we are ? Even on horseback or walking, they would be faster. It would be different if they could traverse Billing Lake to get to the rivers that would take them to Lotus Pier; that lake was still home to the water abyss. 

The Nie and Lan sect leaders could lead the procession, and he and Wei Ying could stay behind and give Wei Ying time to shop and enjoy being free of his guest house. Wen Daifu could spend a few minutes examining Wei Ying and develop a treatment. Then the three, or four if Wen QiongLin stayed with his sister, would travel to Lotus Pier together. It was a practical plan. 

His brother interrupted his thoughts; thankfully he was done eating, or it would be a breach of manners. “WangJi… there are only a few rooms in this inn. Are you and Wei Gongzi comfortable sharing a room? Or would you prefer to share a room with me?”

Share a room with Wei Ying? He gave his brother first a ‘yes’ sounding ‘mm’, then a ‘no!’ sounding ‘mmm’, and received a room key, while fighting to keep his face still. Share a room? To see him with his hair down and clothing all rumpled from sleep? Pure need and want gripped his midsection. Wispy daydreams flew through his head: slowly unwrapping the younger man of his many layers. Being able to touch satiny smooth skin that rarely was touched by sunlight. That didn’t seem right…. Wei Ying talked about swimming the Yunmeng rivers and lakes; would they swim partially clothed? Just with trousers on? Or would they have specialized swim clothes? Surely it must surely be dangerous to swim while covered in five or seven layers of robes. Even light silk layers would become quite heavy and cumbersome in the water. The daydream shifted to show a shirtless Wei Ying, skin lightly tanned. No. That’s wrong. He hasn’t gone swimming since the beginning of the war, at least. Unless he lays out partially unclothed in his garden, he won’t be tan. He tried, unsuccessfully, to train his mind away from the previous dream of pale moonlight kissed skin. He had seen a sodden Wei Ying many, many, times during the war. His friend wore enough layers to keep himself decent, but usually it was just a shirt, under robe, and over robe. Three soaked layers beautifully molded to the younger man’s body. It wasn’t too difficult for his mind to extrapolate what was underneath. 

And now, his mind was creating images of Wei Ying lying on a bed: blindfolded and hands tied to the headboard. He’d be helpless against me. I could do anything, and he’d have to take it. What if he… let me? Gave up control of his body to my will? Let me pleasure him as I wished?

Wei Ying…. He was sitting and laughing with Nie HuaiSang, perhaps catching each other up on what they had done since the end of the war. Jealousy burned deep in his belly. Why won’t you laugh like that with me? Wei WuXian tipped his head back and drank some wine directly from the jar, his long throat rippling as he swallowed. His hair fell back, exposing an ear. I want to bite that. He wasn’t sure if he meant the neck or the ear. Both. I want to bite both of them. See them bruise. I want to see my mark on his body. His eyes dipped to the floor before anyone could see him staring. I want to shove his robes open once we're alone and bite him right over his heart, I want to see my teeth marks on his skin and know that no one else knows they’re there. A secret only the two of us have. I want to know what his skin smells like. What it tastes like. I want to fight him for the rights to his body. With his Core still damaged, I would win even only using one hand. It was shameful what he wanted to do. What was this insane desire to possess, to hurt, to dominate Wei Ying? It couldn’t possibly be normal, could it? Was he a deviant in his soul? 

I must be. Men have sex with women. They don’t slake their lusts with other men regardless of what one of Nie HuaiSang’s confiscated spring books showed. The image had burned in his mind for a long time: a man, arms tied above his head to a rafter. In front of him, a woman kneeling, using her mouth. Behind him, another man using his ass. The rest of the book had been about the two men pleasuring the woman. Only the worst kind of pervert must have desires like mine. He stood up smoothly and politely excused himself. I need to bathe. One to clean my body and one to clean my soul. 

The innkeeper refused him the bath. “I’ve got over forty people in my common room who need a bath tonight and three tubs. Even sharing water, it will be hours before I can send one to your room. You can have a basin of warm water to wash with. You don’t look all that dirty.” Lan WangJi appreciated the hot water. At least he could wipe down the sweat of the day even if he couldn’t soak. 

Wei WuXian breezed into their room while Lan WangJi was still behind the privacy screen. He wasn’t exactly decent, but not completely indecent, having his top half and feet bare to the world, while his lower half was covered by trousers. “Lan Zhan… I heard the funniest story just now. Wen Qing told me that you were looking for her. I mean, even before the incident with the Jin.” He swung around the screen, silver eyes cold and flat. “She said you have a disciple up in Cloud Recesses whose core has been damaged by yin energy, and you would like her to examine him and treat him. How interesting that you have two cultivators who have damaged cores, huh?”

Lan WangJi had hurriedly pulled his outer robe off the chair and threw it on his still damp body. “Wei Ying,” he hissed, wrapping the robe tightly against his body. “Shameless.”

“I’m shameless?” Wei WuXian laughed, harshly. “All I did was see a bit more of your skin than normal. I see more than that when I’m swimming back home. You, on the other hand…. When I told you my Core was irreparably damaged, you decided I was lying?” His voice was frosty. “Wen Qing can’t fix me. No one can. I will never cultivate spiritual energy again.”

Lan WangJi could feel his heart beating faster. At being seen? At being yelled at? It would almost be preferable that his breathing was a bit deeper because he was arguing with his friend. 

He was pretty sure it was because Wei Ying had seen his naked chest. Did you see? Did you like it? His hands fisted in the cloth preserving his modesty. 

Then relaxed, letting his robes fall apart showing a finger’s length of bare chest and belly. “You don’t know that,” he almost begged. “Wen Daifu is an expert on Cores. Let her examine you. Please. If she can’t help… then she can’t help. It’s worth a try.”

“She can’t help.” Wei WuXian’s eyes were glued to the strip of skin, then obviously wrenched aside to look elsewhere. “No one can help me.”

“Wei Ying…” Lan Zhan wanted to reach out and touch his friend, for once out of comfort rather than need . “Tell me. Why?”

“Why can’t she fix me?” Wei WuXian’s silver eyes looked cloudy with grief or hurt or sad memories. “Because there is nothing to fix. I did what I had to do to survive,” he sighed softly. “The alternative was… death. Perhaps you would have made different choices. 

“I made mine. I understood exactly what I was doing. I knew the consequences. I accepted them willingly.”

Lan WangJi felt as if his heart was going to break. You… Let me…. His thoughts were as jumbled as his unspoken words tended to be. “Please… let Wen Daifu look at you. At least to make sure your body is healthy.” And perhaps she will know of something you didn’t think of. Perhaps she has read books you haven’t, and it’s possible for you to return to spiritual cultivation.

“Why is this so important to you?”

“Wei Ying was a hero of the Sunshot Campaign. Heroes should be given honors and awards and be treated with respect.”

“And me being forced to cultivate demonic energy goes against those rules?” Wei WuXian laughed, cruelly. “Jin GuangYao probably agrees with you. The man who killed Wen RuoHan proudly hailed as a Jin, but given a courtesy name that demonstrably shows he will never be acknowledged as his father’s son. 

“Rarely will a servant’s son or a bastard ever receive any of the accolades they have earned, Lan WangJi. That’s the way life goes.”

“It’s not right.”

Wei WuXian left his post by the privacy screen, kicked off his boots, and lay down on his bed. “Right and wrong? Who decides what is right and what is wrong? Are the rules for right and wrong applicable to everybody? Or are there different rules for those who have power and those who have none? It might be easy for you to reply: ‘status is irrelevant’. As the son of a servant, I can tell you, that is incorrect. 

“Do you remember when I hit Jin ZiXuan? And got expelled for it? Do you honestly think Lan QiRen would have expelled Jiang Cheng? Or Nie HuaiSang?”

“Shufu should not have expelled you.”

“But he did.” Wei WuXian pulled his blankets up. “Good night, Lan Zhan.”

“Good night.” Lan WangJi struggled to comprehend that lecture. Are there really different rules for different classes? Meng Yao’s courtesy name was irrelevant to Lan WangJi’s life; he hadn’t stopped to think about the slap in the face it was…. The man who ended the war should have been named Jin ZiYao, been listed in the same generation as his legitimate brother. 

He finished dressing in night clothes and lay down himself. Is Wei Ying right? Are right and wrong determined by status instead of morals? Those Wen I saved from the bat king and Jin ZiXun’s ruthlessness…. What would their death price have been? He was rather uncomfortable thinking they probably didn’t have a death price…. That if Wen Qing had demanded recompense for Jin ZiXun’s murderous plan, she would have been either quietly killed or publicly humiliated. He could easily picture Jin GuangShan stating that Wen dogs have no value… unlike hunting dogs. And the other sect leaders quietly agreeing with him. He was suddenly glad that his brother and Nie MingJue wanted the trial to occur in Lotus Pier; hopefully Jiang WanYin had a working moral compass.

He couldn’t sleep. Midnight had long passed, and he was still staring at the ceiling’s wooden planks. Across the room, Wei WuXian stirred, whimpered. “Hurts,” he whimpered. “Keep going. I can do it.”

“Wei Ying. Are you awake?”

“Hurts.”

Lan WangJI crept out of bed so kneel next to his friend. “Wei Ying. What hurts?” he was whispering.

Wei WuXian suddenly yelled. “It hurts!”

Lan WangJi cast a charm to keep the noise from escaping the room. “Wei Ying. Wake up.”

“I can do it. Keep going,” the sleeping man ordered. He lay flat on his back, hands at his sides, clutching the bed sheets, entire body tense with remembered pain. “Wen Qing, I can do it. Don’t stop. I want this.”

Lan WangJi stopped. Breathing. Thinking. He awoke from a mental fog to hear Wei Ying commanding, “Wen Ning, let me be. I can do this. You worry about Jiang Cheng. Wen Qing, don’t you dare stop. I’m fine. Keep going.”

“What did they do to you?” Lan WangJi wondered. He said they saved him and Jiang WanYin after the fall of Lotus Pier. Jiang WanYin was sick. Sick with what? What was Wen Qing doing that he felt he had to keep telling her to continue? Something so painful she wanted to stop? He reached out to wipe a tear trickling down his friend’s face. “What are you remembering?” Was it better to wake someone from their nightmares? Would Wei Ying want to be woken up? He might not like me seeing him vulnerable like that…. The sleeping body jerked in on itself, curling up into a teeny ball.

“No. No. Stay away! Don’t come near me!” An arm flew up as if to protect his head. “Go away! Bad dog!” The voice trickled down to a child’s plea. “Help me. I want my mama. Please, somebody find my mama and baba.”

Lan WangJi couldn’t bear it anymore. How can he sleep if he has nightmares like these? How many nights do they come? No wonder he wanted to drink himself to oblivion! “Wei Ying. Wake up.” He gently shook a shoulder. “Wei Ying. You’re safe. Wake up.”

The body stilled. “Lan Zhan?”

“I’m here. You were having nightmares.”

“Ah. Sorry. Was I too loud?”

“What happened? Why did Wen Qing hurt you? Why would you tell her that she needed to keep hurting you? Were you captured and tortured? Were you protecting Jiang WanYin?” The words tumbled out, for once not getting blockaded by his teeth. 

“It’s not important, Lan Zhan. She has never done anything to me that I didn't force her to do.”

Lan WangJi set his fingers on Wei WuXian’s pulse and sent his qi into his body. He soothed blockages in the meridians, found a few straining muscles and eased them. In the lower dantian, where he should ‘see’ a swirling ball of energy, there was… nothing. Black, empty nothing. Yin energy is still blocking his Core? He pushed through the emptiness, hoping to find a way past the resentful energy. Except… he couldn’t feel anything hidden in the rotting, slimy, vomit inducing resentful energy…. Wei WuXian yanked his wrist back. 

“Your Core…” Lan WangJi struggled to understand. 

“Leave me alone,” Wei WuXian ordered.

“Wei Ying….” The younger man rolled back into his blankets. “Sleep well.” Dream of happy things.  

The nightmares came back, of course. Lan WangJi sat on the floor next to his friend’s bed and watched and listened to his friend curling around the blankets, thrashing as if fighting, moaning and groaning in remembered pain. There was no more talking, at least. Although, if Wei WuXian had talked in his sleep, it would have been easier for Lan WangJi to understand what he was going through. And for some reason, it was becoming increasingly… something not quite understood, necessary, perhaps… for Lan WangJi to understand his friend.

Chapter Text

At five, he arose, changed into day clothes, and left the room to find his brother. “Come walk with me?” the older asked pleasantly. “The innkeeper has just started cooking and only us Lan are awake.” 

Lan WangJi agreed, and they left the inn quietly. “XiongZhang… Wei Ying has nightmares. He dreamed that Wen Qing was torturing him. But he kept telling her to continue.” He briefly recapped what Wei Ying had said in his sleep.

Lan XiChen thought for a while. “I have heard soldiers saying similar things during the war. A limb is damaged beyond our Healers’ abilities, and must be cut off. They are in great pain, and insist that the healer continue.”

Lan WangJi shook his head. “Wei Ying likes to walk in the stream behind his house with his trousers rolled up past his knees; he has all his limbs.”

“Ah.” They walked along streets still quiet, with only an occasional person scurrying past on some unknown errand. “When did they have the opportunity to meet? At the Qishan conference? Not then,” Lan XiChen answered his own question. “Wen Qing was sitting with her uncle during the competition and left immediately after. During the Indoctrination?”

Lan WangJi shook his head. “I don’t recall Wen Daifu being there. I would have noticed if he had been tortured.” Wei Ying was his normal, happy, bouncy self throughout the whole thing. Until he got sick in the cave.

“Then after the fall of Lotus Pier must be when it happened.” Lan XiChen sounded out his reasoning. “Jiang WangYin and Wei WuXian escaped Lotus Pier, somehow with the aid of Wen QiongLin and were kept safe from Wen RuoHan in the Yiling Supervisory Office. It had to be there, because after that was when Wen Chao dropped Wei WuXian into the Burial Mounds…. It makes sense, right?” Lan XiChen was talking to himself. “Jiang WanYin was drunk and talking nonsense, so, of course, he wasn’t telling the truth. Everyone knew he was lying. But what if he thought he was telling the truth? He’s much stronger now than he was then. While Wei Gongzi had…” He stopped walking, face graying out in shock. “Stopped using his sword.” He turned with wide eyes to his brother. “Does Wei WuXian have a scar over his lower dantian?”

“How would I know? Probably not.” Our bodies don’t really scar after a normal wound. Only wounds made with spiritual energy devices will form scars. Even then, many of those wounds will fade with time.

“Check if he has a scar. It’s the only answer that makes sense.”

“What makes sense?” Lan WangJi couldn’t follow his brother’s thoughts. 

Find that scar. I need to get to Lotus Pier to talk to Jiang WangYin. Let’s go back.”

Lan WangJi accepted a tray with two bowls of congee from the innkeeper, and made his way up to his room. Wei WuXian was, of course, still asleep, sprawled out in what looked to be a far more restful pose than he had been in all night. Does he have a scar? Lan WangJi’s eyes roamed over the sleeping man’s body, from the rucked aside lapels showing half of one collarbone, following down the twisted cloth to where it split just above his knees. No belt at least. Kneeling next to the bed, one hand reached out to lightly tug at the right side of Wei WuXian’s outer robe; it gave in gracefully and slithered down the side of Wei Ying’s body. I’m a pervert. He felt disgusted with himself, even as his heartbeat increased with the thought of being able to touch . The inner robe was still tied; he slid his hand under the white silk, careful to not make contact with the skin. Slowly… carefully, heart rabbiting in his chest, his hand moved up until it hovered over Wei WuXian’s lower dantian. Then he lowered his hand, just enough to brush against the skin.

There was a small ridge. Straight and about the width of his palm. He has a scar, just like XiongZhang guessed. Just as slowly, Lan WangJi removed his hand, and sank back on his heels. His palm tingled, almost, from touching . It felt so nice….

Except for the scar.

Cultivators don’t get scars.

Except when made by spiritual tools. But even then…. Lan WangJi had been cut by spiritual swords during the war and most of the scars had already faded away. The few still around had been deep enough to require being sewn up….

So did that mean Wei WuXian’s scar was from a cut that had been sewn up, too? 

A quiet knock disturbed this line of thinking. “XiongZhang,” Lan WangJi acknowledged quietly.

“Will you be going with the rest of us to Lotus Pier this morning?”

Lan WangJi cast a quick glance back at the sleeping man. “No. I promised to take him shopping today. We’ll travel on our own.” 

“Does he have a scar?”

“XiongZhang… How am I supposed to see if there’s a scar? Am I supposed to strip him half naked while he sleeps?” he hissed. And while the idea of actually doing that was exciting and did things to his own body, the actuality of doing that was… impossible. What he had done was horrible enough. I’m a pervert. And I just lied to my brother. What kind of man am I becoming?  

“Of course not. But perhaps you could be a bit careless while he’s bathing or dressing and peek?” 

This was offered with a teasing smile and a twinkle in his brother’s eyes. He wasn’t being serious, and yet… Lan WangJi could feel his ears heating up. “No.” As much as he wanted to see Wei Ying in all his glory, and do things to and with Wei Ying, he wasn’t about to confess to such perversions to his brother. 

“Ah. I will see you in Lotus Pier, then. Safe travels.”

“Safe travels to you, too.” Lan WangJi shut the door and leaned against it for a moment. His hand still tingled from touching Wei Ying’s belly. What else would tingle if he ever got to see ? To touch ? What would it be like if Wei Ying was just as perverted and wanted to touch back? 

Lan WangJi sat at a table, and ate his cooling breakfast. He needed to sort the mush in his brain. It only made sense to look at events from the cave up to the death of Wen Chao. 

Wei Ying and Jiang WanYin return to Lotus Pier. The Wen attack. The two escape Lotus Pier. Wen QiongLin hides them in the Yiling Supervisory Office. Wen Qing tortures Wei Ying; it has to have happened there. Jiang WanYin goes to the Unclean Realm while Wei Ying is captured and thrown into the Burial Mounds.

So why did the pair split up? What happens in Yiling that sends the new Jiang sect leader in one direction and his head disciple in another? Were they on the verge of being caught? Did Wei Ying act as bait for Wen Chao allowing Jiang WanYin to escape?

Three months later, Wei Ying emerges from the Burial Mounds cultivating yin energy.

XiongZhang said…’Stopped using his sword’, and something about Jiang WanYin being stronger and lying about it. Wei Ying says he can’t cultivate spiritual energy. 

Can’t. Will never again be able to. How damaged is his Core that it can never be fixed?

Such thinking brought him to the question: Why would Wen Qing cut open Wei Ying’s abdomen? No… why would he force her to cut him open? Wei Ying’s confession made absolutely no sense. Lan WangJi looked up from the remains of his congealing breakfast. Why would Wen Daifu cut open Wei Ying’s…. Remembering where the scar was located froze Lan WangJi’s thoughts in place. Why would Wen Daifu, who is considered an expert on Golden Cores, cut Wei Ying open over his lower dantian? 

Jiang WanYin was… how did Wei Ying say it? Injured and feverish? XiongZhang says he was stronger afterwards. Jiang WanYin became stronger, and Wei Ying can no longer cultivate spiritual energy… He turned accusing eyes to his sleeping friend. You didn’t. Wei Ying! He screamed as loud as it was possible in his head. Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me…. I couldn’t find your Core. It… it’s hidden in yin energy, right?

Right?

It’s not gone?

Memories of the nightmare talk flooded his thoughts. ‘Wen Ning, let me be. I can do this. You worry about Jiang Cheng. Wen Qing, don’t you dare stop. I’m fine. Keep going.’ Tell me you didn’t give Jiang WanYin your Core.

Chapter Text

Wei WuXian woke to a cold breakfast and a Lan WangJi who looked… off. “I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t let you sleep much?” He had slept, but… felt unsettled. The terrors of the various nightmares and the uncertainty of his reality hovering over him like a storm cloud. 

“Mmm,” sounded noncommittal. “Eat,” decidedly less so.

Wei WuXian scooted over to the table and smiled at the warming talisman stuck on the bowl. “Thanks. When do we leave?”

Golden eyes dimmed even further. “XiongZhang left with everyone else already. Can take Wei Ying shopping as promised. Will get horses from stables later.”

Wei WuXian dropped his spoon into his bowl. “They left without us? Lan Zhan! Why didn’t you make me wake up?”

“Promised to take Wei Ying shopping.”

Were Lan Zhan’s ears turning pink? The rest of his face was his normal jade-like semblance…. “Mmm. Why horses though? Why not a boat?”

“Water abyss.”

“Still?” popped out of his mouth before he actually thought about it. It might take years to eradicate that mess. The traditional method was to drain the lake, eliminate the ghouls, and refill the lake. The process would kill all the creatures living in the lake which would harm the fishermen’s ability to make living. It would also ruin, perhaps permanently, the water commerce to and from Caiyi. Destroying the abyss would practically kill off the town. “Never mind. I’m still half asleep over here. Horses. Why don’t you fly?”

“Wei Ying cannot fly.”

“You can.”

“Will travel with Wei Ying.”

“Ah.” He concentrated on his meal, enjoying the pork slices liberally sprinkled on top as well as the spiciness. Meat and flavor . He savored each bite, holding back his moans of enjoyment. He’d wait until he was eating his shijie’s food for that…. There was no point in wishing he’d be allowed to travel to Yunmeng on his own. For all that Lan WangJi kept insisting he wasn’t a prisoner, he was certainly making sure to keep a close eye on him.

The markets were open and busy when the duo left the inn. Wei WuXian ignored his pressing problem, and darted from one stall to another, looking for the perfect gifts to bring back to Lotus Pier. He hesitated at a table with beautifully carved combs. “ShiJie would love one of these,” he sighed. “I should punch the peacock’s face inside out.” Lan WangJi’s lips twitched at the incoherent ideas. “Jin ZiXuan should be the one buying her a comb. But he’s an ass, and still thinks he’s too good for her. I should punch his face just for that alone. ShiJie still seems to like him, though.”

“Mmm.”

He found hair ribbons in shades of lavender, and an exquisitely painted fan, some lip paint that he thought would accent Jiang YanLi’s eyes, and other trinkets to bring back. 

Packing everything away in their room in the inn, Wei WuXian looked at his friend. “How long do I get to stay in Lotus Pier?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Before I have to go back to Cloud Recesses? How long can I stay?”

Lan WangJi swallowed, and dropped his eyes to the floor. “Wei Ying is not a prisoner. Stay in Lotus Pier as you wish. Return to Cloud Recesses only if you wish.”

“Of course I am,” Wei WuXian protested. “How can I not be?” I am a demonic cultivator. I am everything that Lan Zhan stands against. Everything GusuLan stands against. How… how can I not be their prisoner? That he was allowed to teach the juniors and little ones didn’t make sense, and had never made sense. 

“Wei Ying…. WangJi apologizes.” Lan WangJi seemed to have to force his gaze back up so he could look his friend in the eyes. “Apologize for thinking I knew you could return to spiritual cultivation and ignoring you when you said you can’t.

“Brought Wei Ying to Cloud Recesses to heal. That’s it. Did not bring Wei Ying as a prisoner.”

“Of course you brought me as a prisoner!” Wei WuXian could feel his anger and frustration rising. Perhaps attributed to the nightmares that haunted his sleep or the Yin Tiger Seal that pulsed in its qiankun pouch. If you didn’t make a prisoner, what was I doing there? Why didn’t I leave? Why did I subject myself to such horrible food and no entertainment? “I am a demonic cultivator! I was useful during the war; a tool the sect leaders used to win. But a tool that needs to be destroyed once it’s no longer useful. I knew that during the war. I know I’m a dead man walking now that the war has ended. GusuLan is righteousness personified and will do the right thing, right? That’s what everyone decided?” It was getting harder to breathe. “Just tell me how it’s going to happen. Tell me. Am I going to be executed? Or will it be ‘accidental’? So sorry, we were on a night hunt and he just happened to get in the way of a hundred arrows? Do I get to see Lotus Pier again? Or will I be killed along the way? I really want to see ShiJie once more. 

“Tell them… tell them they can kill me after I see her. I just want to be able to say goodbye.”

“Wei Ying…. You are not going to be killed. Not a prisoner. Not under a death sentence. Wei Ying is good .”

Wei WuXian scoffed at that and threw his money pouch on the floor. “I’m good? Do you know how I got the money to pay for the things I bought today?” He laughed, harshly. “I stole it. I looted the bodies of the Wen I murdered. Murdered, Lan Zhan. They never had a chance against my ghouls and ghosts. I slaughtered them with no warning, gave them no opportunity to defend themselves. There was no heroic battle where there was even the slightest possibility they would survive; this was as easy as slaughtering lambs in a pen. Easier.

“You know what the Wen did to Lotus Pier. Because of me . I was the reason they came. I’m the reason the Wen attacked. I didn’t kill my fellow disciples, but… they died because of me . Because I insulted Wen Chao. Because I protected MianMian from having her face branded. Because Madame Yu refused to cut my hand off when Wang JingLiao ordered her to. My home burned, my shidi and shimei are dead, Jiang Shushu and Madame Yu are dead…. And it’s all because of me . 

“I’m a murderer and a thief and a demonic cultivator! I destroyed my own sect. I’m not good.” Just kill me. Please. Fast and quick. If you do it, I won’t mind. His thoughts spiraled into negativity and depression. I was prepared to die at the Nightless City. So tired. This waiting…. I can’t take it. I just want it to be over. Mama, I’m so tired of this. 

Lan WangJi looked at the money pouch for a long time. “Lotus Pier burned and your sect died because Wen RuoHan and Wen Chao wanted to destroy the YunmengJiang Sect. It had nothing to do with you anymore than the destruction of Cloud Recesses had anything to do with me.

“Did Wei Ying have a choice? A real choice? If the choices are to die of starvation or steal from corpses to live, did Wei Ying have a true choice to make? The same with demonic cultivation. Wei Ying was alone in the Burial Mounds. Yin energy surrounded you. To use it and live or stay on the straight path and die? 

“Debating hypotheticals is valid only in the safety of a classroom. One can claim to never stray from the path of righteousness if one is never put into the position of straying from it out of necessity. One can sit on a throne of gold and swear death is preferable to stealing from the dead to live. 

“We have no idea what choices we would make until we are the ones powerless and left for dead with no hope of escape, or starving and there’s food and money just lying there and no one else to claim it. 

“Wei Ying was faced with the choice to live or to die. Lan Zhan will not blame you for choosing to live in the only manner readily available.”

Wei WuXian stared at his suddenly long winded friend and felt less stable than a goopy mud cake on a riverbank. He felt fragile and tetherless. As if any sudden movement in the room would be sufficient to squash him to a wafer thin version of himself. I need…. I need ShiJie. I need Mama. I need…. He really doesn’t think I’m a monster? That I don’t need to be put down like a rabid dog? He could feel himself starting to tremble. I need… I’m going to fall…. Being believed, being seen, being absolved…. I need someone to hold me before I…. I need…. Mama…. Please…. I need you to hold me, Mama. Why aren’t you here? I need you so much. He could feel his arms wrapping around his belly, trying to hold himself together. Keep himself whole.

“Wei Ying?” Lan Zhan sounded worried. 

“Go away.”

“No.”

“I’m going to explode. The Yin Tiger Seal is here. It’s not going to be pretty. Go away.”

“Will pick up the pieces.” There was a long pause where Wei WuXian tried to hold himself together long enough to be left alone. “Let me help you. Please.”

“You can’t!” It sounded hysterical. Shame, anger, hurt, exhaustion, fear, and need washed over him. He closed himself in, closed himself down. “Just let me be alone for a little bit. I’ll be better in a sichen. Go! Leave me! Please.”

“Lan Zhan wants to help.” There was the sound of breath inhalation and a long sigh as it breathed out. “Pretend I’m your shijie. Take from me what you would take from her.”

Wei WuXian grabbed with all his soul onto the lifeline thrown at him. ShiJie…. Hold me. “Hold me, Lan Zhan. Hold me like I’m a small child. Just….” Strong arms wrapped around his shoulders, criss-crossed over his back. A warm hand pressed his head to lie against a warm, silk covered shoulder. He breathed in the cooling sandalwood scent that seemed to be Lan Zhan’s favorite incense. “Tight. Don’t let me break apart.”

“As you need,” Lan Zhan whispered, and squeezed just a bit tighter. “Whatever Wei Ying needs.”

Wei WuXian slowly relaxed into the embrace. Slowly, the other’s warmth penetrated into the cold, empty parts of his soul and body. Tensions eased, so slowly. Time… seemed… to… slow down… and… stop…. He was aware, in some remote section of his mind, that he was being moved… from standing to sitting to lying… all while still being held in the tightest embrace he’d been held in since the last afternoon he’d seen his parents. He was crying, he supposed, as his mind started to accept that he probably wasn’t going to die in the next few days…. Don’t stop…. Ever…. Let me stay like this forever. I’ll be good, I promise. Don’t leave me. 

Mama? Is it really going to be alright? Are they really going to let me live? Mama… I miss you so much. I wish you were here. I need you. Need you to tell me everything is going to work out.

Chapter Text

He woke, feeling warm, truly warm inside and out, for the first time since the surgery. His head was resting on something moving softly… Lan Zhan’s chest? “Lan Zhan?” He couldn’t move, not that he particularly wanted to, because of the bands of iron that tightened ever so slightly around him. 

“Mmm?”

“Thank you.” The chest under him didn’t seem to be in any hurry for him to move; the arms holding him close didn’t loosen in the slightest. “I think I needed that.”

“Did you sleep well? Were there nightmares again?”

Wei WuXian considered…. Nightmares were such a normal part of his life…. “Yes? And, no…. I don’t remember dreaming at all.”

“Mmm.” 

To Wei WuXian’s ears it sounded like a rather smug ‘mmm’. He started talking stock of his own body, in addition to the one he was plastered against. We seem to be wrapped around each other, not unlike a pile of kittens…. Their legs were tangled together. Wei WuXian had one arm tucked almost under an armpit. “I’m sorry. I’ll move?” He moved slowly, letting them disengage their body parts without hurting anything delicate. But finally, he was resting on an elbow facing his friend, who was also resting on his elbow. “Hi. This is awkward. I haven’t slept with another person since I was ten or eleven, and Jiang Shushu said Jiang Cheng and I were too old to be sharing a bed.”

“Mmm.”

Wei WuXian tried to grin, to break the delicate tension between them when he noticed Lan WangJi’s eyes… change. I know that look. I used to get it from girls back in Lotus Pier…. Right before they’d say I could kiss them if I wanted to…. Lan Zhan’s head moved fractionally closer. Shit! Fuck? He’s going to kiss me? No. Why would Lan Zhan kiss me? That’s ridiculous. He’s probably just trying to get up without knocking me over. That’s it. He’s…. Soft lips pressed against his own for a breath… two… three… And again, harder, more insistent. It felt… not unlike the aftershocks of being whipped by Zidian. Except far more pleasant. 

Far, far, far more pleasant…. Lan Zhan pulled back and Wei WuXian heard a whimper. He wasn’t quite sure which one of them sounded like a sad dog; he just hoped it wasn’t him. That was my first kiss. That seemed slightly important for Lan Zhan to know, so he repeated it aloud. “That was my first kiss.”

“Mmm.”

“Lan Zhan…. I…. I?” His mind blinked on and off, like sunlight on a patch of grass under a tree on a windy day. “You gave me my first kiss?” he frowned. That seemed weird to say. Why would Lan Zhan kiss me? “Am I still asleep? But if I’m asleep, why am I dreaming that you kissed me?”

“Not asleep.”

“Ah. Good to know.” I gave up my first kiss to Lan Zhan. “Lan Zhan? Did I like it?” Having spoken the words, Wei WuXian felt like it might be a rather stupid question to ask…. But he did need to know the answer. 

Or did he ask the wrong question? “Oh. Wait. Hold on a moment.”

Lan Zhan leaned forward again. Kissed him again. This time he added a little nip to the bottom lip. And one to the top, as if to even things out. “Does that answer your question?”

“What question?” Little happy tingles were dancing their way across his back, around his buttocks, up and down his thighs, clustering around his belly, tightening his nipples, his balls. The only question he was aware of was: “Are you going to kiss me again?”

“Does Wei Ying want another kiss?”

“Yes?” This kiss was more forceful, tipping him backwards to lay against the bedding while Lan Zhan shifted to lay half atop him. The kiss didn’t feel like the way he’d seen others doing it…. Are we just supposed to press our lips against each other? I think we’re supposed to open our mouths a bit? He tried imitating what he’d witnessed: opening his mouth enough to press a kiss against Lan Zhan’s top lip. 

Lan Zhan… growled . A deep in the back of the throat, an ‘I am going to eat you for dinner’ growl. 

It was fascinating. Exhilarating. He could press a kiss anywhere and Lan Zhan reacted. Sometimes audibly and sometimes physically. So he did. A kiss along the jawline? Lan Zhan used his hand to pull their mouths back together. A kiss on the eyes, nose or forehead? Lan Zhan would shudder, and press his hips forward, thrusting against Wei WuXian’s hip. A kiss with teeth tugging on an earlobe? That received the biggest response: Lan Zhan roughly shoved Wei Ying’s legs apart and settled between them. Hip to hip. Groin to groin. I’m hard. He’s hard. How? Why? Lan Zhan was attacking his mouth again; this time pressuring him to open wider.

And a tongue slipped in between his lips to stroke his. Fuck. He felt that all the way down his body. Apparently Lan Zhan did, too; his hips jerked, pressed down and forward. It felt amazing…. Every caress on his face or neck from callused fingertips, every brush of silk against silk, every shift of the body lying so heavily on top of his. Breathing was getting challenging… he pulled his head back to gather in some much needed lungfuls of air, exposing his neck to Lan Zhan’s teeth. The bite right over his Adam’s apple was fierce; the pain/pleasure streaked right down the center of his body to pulse in his cock. He whined, “Lan Zhan… I’m….” I need to… can’t get a hand between us. 

Wait. 

I can’t do that in front of Lan Zhan! “Lan Zhan… stop. We need to stop!”

“Stop?” Lan WangJi’s eyes were dilated in pleasure. “Don’t want to stop.”

Wei WuXian pushed ineffectively at the larger body. “We need to stop!” So embarrassing! His body was screaming for release. He pushed and wiggled fiercely, until he was able to wrench himself away. He sat on the edge of the bed, panting in frustration and need, and pressed a hand over his groin to try to get himself to calm down. 

“What’s wrong? I thought Wei Ying was enjoying it?”

“Enjoying it?” the younger one muttered. “Enjoying it too much.”

“My apologies.”

“No apologies.” Wei WuXian’s mind and mood was as crossed as his eyeballs and legs. Go down! Behave! He looked over at his friend, who was now lying on his back, robes falling aside to frame trousers displaying an impressive tenting situation. Wow. That’s… massive. How are you not embarrassed to show that? Then he mentally slapped himself. If I was that big, I’d probably show it off, too. Not that mine’s small. He glanced down at his lap where his slightly less impressive erection was showing no signs of being interested in flagging. Go down, damn you. “I liked it. A bit too much.”

“Too much?”

Wei Ying could feel his face heating up. “Certain activities you do when you’re all by yourself, right? Or with your wife once you’re married? Are you allowed to…” he made a rude gesture with one hand, “Just… do stuff with friends? I mean…. Kissing is allowed, I suppose. I see unmarried people kissing when they think they’re alone. The rest of it?” He sounded a bit lost. “Are you really allowed to do… whatever… with friends? Isn’t it weird?”

“You’ve never touched another person?”

“I’ve touched plenty of people,” Wei WuXian snapped. He also suspected they were referring to completely different meanings of ‘touch’. “I touch people all the time.”

“Not that.” Lan WangJi rolled into a sitting position. “You said this was your first kiss. People don’t need to kiss to do… intimate stuff.”

“I suppose you have?” Wei WuXian glared at his friend, who looked away, ears reddened, and mmmed in a negative tone. “How’d you get good at kissing if you’ve never done it before?”

“Just did what felt good. What seemed to make Wei Ying feel good.”

Wei Ying looked away, not sure of what they were supposed to do now. Would one have to leave the room so the other could take care of their personal business? I can’t walk just yet. Go down, will you? A quick glance showed Lan Zhan wasn’t able to leave the room, either. Need was still thrumming though his body, echos of being touched, being kissed, skipping across his skin like a rock on a pond. “I always thought spring books were just stories. Like stories about dragons and talking animals. Fiction. I didn’t think it happened in real life.” He thought back on some of the more fantastic, or so he’d thought, stories. Strangers meeting in a secluded grotto and doing it. A man entering the wrong room of an inn, seeing the woman naked in the bath, and doing it with her. Two childhood friends playing and laughing in a field, discovering they weren’t children anymore, and doing it. The stories about the men who had hundreds of concubines or visited pleasure houses, in contrast, were far more normal types of stories. More realistic, he’d thought. 

Who knew that sometimes, you could just be lying in bed after a wonderful nap, and someone would kiss you until you weren’t sure which direction was up. All you knew was that in that direction was him .

So here he was, kissed by a friend to the point where, even after more than an incense’s worth of time, he was still very much aroused. A male friend, too. Which had never, ever, shown up in any of the stories he’d read. 

“I’m sorry,” Lan Zhan sounded very contrite. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“You don’t need to be sorry.” Wei Ying carefully laid down on his side, top leg bent allowing his clothing to conceal his still-very-interested-in-resuming-kissing body part. “I was a willing participant.” He forced himself to look up at the jade. “I enjoyed it. I just don’t know the rules,” he admitted, feeling young and ignorant. 

“There are no set rules that I know of,” Lan Zhan admitted. “I think we get to make them up for ourselves…. If we want to do this again.”

“Do you want to?”

“Yes. You?”

“I think… I do, too.” He shoved his face down into the bedding. Shameless, he scolded himself since Lan Zhan didn’t seem to be saying it. 

“Are you hungry? I’ll go get us some dinner.” 

Lan Zhan sounded rather smug instead of being properly embarrassed. You’re the shameless one, not me. Wei Ying glanced at his friend’s lap, which, thankfully, seemed to be less prominent than it had been a little while ago. “Yes, thank you.” Lan Zhan stood up, pulled on his boots, and left the room. Wei Ying dashed to the privacy screen and quickly took care of himself. Since he was partially unclothed, he decided to wash away some of the sweat (and hopefully the soap’s scent would overpower the scent of his release). He had only just pulled up a clean pair of trousers when the door opened, and the smell of heavily spiced beef wafted in his direction. He skipped out from behind the privacy screen, shirt and robes casually thrown over a shoulder. “That smells wonderful!” He took a large sniff over the bowls. “Delicious!”

“Wei Ying…” 

Such a stiff, Wei WuXian scolded, hearing his friend sound scandalized. It’s just a bare chest. You’ll expose more than this when you come swimming with me in Lotus Pier. 

“Wei Ying… what happened?” The tray contents clattered as it was almost dropped onto a table. 

“What happened to what?”

Lan Zhan ran a finger across the raised silvery-pink line on Wei WuXian’s belly. “Is this why?”

Wei Ying flinched, dropped his clothes, and fumbled in the pile for his shirt. Wrapping himself in the cloth, he hissed, “Is this why what?”

“You said you were injured when Lotus Pier fell. In your nightmares last night…. You called out to Wen Qing to keep going, and kept saying it hurt. You say you can’t cultivate spiritual energy anymore. You have a scar over your lower dantian.”

Wei WuXian glared. “You can stop now.”

“Stop what? Stop wondering what she did to you? Did she torture you? Did she cut your Core out?”

“Just stop. Talking. Speculating. Just. Stop.”

“Wei Ying! Xu Daifu said that using Yin energy damaged your Core. Lan Daifu said Yin energy was surrounding your Core, preventing you from using spiritual energy. When I looked last night, I couldn’t find it. Your Core. It was completely encased by yin energy? Or is it not there? From what you said during your nightmares, Wen Daifu tortured you. She cut you open, didn’t she? She removed your Core? Is that what happened? Was your Core the price you paid for Jiang WanYin’s security in the Supervisory Office?”

“No!” Wei WuXian screamed. “No. That’s not what happened. She didn’t torture me. I asked her to do it. I forced her to do it.”

Lan WangJi’s hands curled into fists. “You forced her to cut your Core out? To what end?”

“None of your business. I did what I had to do.”

“To survive, yes, you’ve said that. Were they going to kill you if you didn’t allow them to cut you open? How would removing your Core help you to survive?”

“You wouldn’t understand.”

“Tell me! Make me understand!”

Wei WuXian stared at his friend, who was glaring right back. At least this feels more like our normal. Not like kissing earlier. He wanted to say… so many things. The truth, even. Maybe. Would you understand? I had to do it. He was dying. I couldn’t just let him die. I couldn’t do that to ShiJie. Nor to his parents; I owed them so much. And then I killed them. What is my Core when compared to all of their lives? Jiang Shushu saved me from a life of poverty, crime and possibly dying before I was ten. I owed him my life. “I owed Jiang Shushu a life debt. I paid him back with the only thing I owned.” He could feel himself trembling again, that spiraling void that had embraced him earlier in the day dragging him into its abyss. 

And then strong arms wrapped around him again, holding him tight. Holding him together. “WangJi understands,” whispered into his ear.

“What do you understand?”

“Sometimes Wei Ying says ‘I did what I had to do to survive’, and he means ‘I did what I had to do for someone else to survive’.”

Chapter Text

For Lan WangJi, the blunt statement was as good as a confession: Wei Ying forced Wen Qing to remove his Golden Core to give to Jiang WanYin. How the new Sect leader damaged his Core was still unknown, but…. Was it even necessary to know? 

They started the night in separate beds. But with the first whimpers of a nightmare, Lan WangJi grabbed his blankets and settled into Wei WuXian’s bed, pulling him into his embrace. As he had in the afternoon, Wei WuXian used his friend as a pillow, grasping tightly with arms and legs, and finally relaxing into a nightmare-free sleep.

They left Caiyi late the next morning, and took a route to Yunmeng that would avoid the main contingent. They walked for the most part, only taking short flights with Bichen at only about knees’ height above the ground. 

Lan WangJi’s emotions had a wider range to traverse now. He would spend many happy hours reliving kissing Wei Ying. Remembering how it felt to taste, to touch, to know that his friend was also very interested in the proceedings. And then he’d remember that Wei Ying mentioned ‘wife’, and must be thinking that ‘kissing’ was for anyone, but being more intimate must still be reserved for marriage. 

With a woman.

And so he yearned, and burned, and ached to once again feel Wei Ying’s body responding to his kiss, his touch. Knowing that if it ever happened again, it would end, once again, with them finishing alone. Which made his day dreams that much more fiercer. The need to claim, to rip Wei Ying’s clothing off, to shove himself into Wei Ying’s body, whether he was willing or not, and take was almost overpowering at times. Wei Ying calls himself a monster for being a soldier in wartime and fighting against the enemy in the only way he had left to him. He’s a monster? He’s not the one who dreams of raping someone. 

I’m a monster. I’m the perverted one. I’m the one who needs to be kept away from him. 

It was impossible to keep away, now. Wei Ying’s nightmares were kept at bay only through being held at night. He would apologize profusely in the morning, and at night when they stopped pretending to sleep separately, and simply laid down together. “No need to apologize,” Lan WangJi always insisted. If you knew how much I enjoyed this, you wouldn’t let me sleep in the same building, never mind share a bed with you. In some ways it was cathartic: being allowed to hold his friend close and be the light in the dark keeping the bad dreams at bay. Just touching settled his desires and inflamed them at the same time. 

They arrived at Lotus Pier to find the place crammed with people. Jin GuangShan stood on the dias in Sword Hall, looking as if he might take Jiang WanYin’s seat at any moment. “We should have this sham of a trial held in Koi Tower. At least I have the room to hold everyone there.”

“Since you call this trial a ‘sham’, we already know how you’d rule,” Wen Qing snorted. 

More sect and clan leaders shouted out their opinions, most of which involved ‘Wen dogs’. Lan WangJi stifled the urge to break their teeth. 

Jin GuangYao worked the room, apologizing for the Phoenix Hunt being interrupted, and assuring everyone that the Hunt would only be delayed by at most a day or two. Surely the trial wouldn’t last longer than that?

Lan WangJi’s hands fisted at his sides; A day or two? When over one hundred people should be interviewed? He hoped Jiang WanYin would hold a fair trial. The young man sat on his throne, partially obscured by Jin GuangShan. A metaphor for what’s to come?

“Wei WuXian! Just the man I was hoping would be here!” Jin GuangShan yelled over the noisy room. “A hero of the Sunshot Campaign left to the tender mercies of the GusuLan. It’s good to see you looking well.”

Wei WuXian smiled in response, “It’s good to be looking so well.” It wasn’t his ‘I’m happy’ smile. It was a performance. Lan WangJi knew him well enough by now.

“That Tiger Seal of yours,” Jin GuangShan smiled, too. “I regretfully didn’t get to see it in action during the war.”

“Because you were playing both sides,” Wei WuXian hissed under his breath.

“I would love to see it in action. Perhaps you can bring it to Phoenix Mountain and give us a demonstration?”

The fake smile was back. “I’m still under Lan Daifu’s care. Using Yin energy has damaged my meridians,” Wei WuXian boldly lied. “I am banned from using Yin energy until they are completely healed.”

“Perhaps another can demonstrate for us? If not… you can at least let us see it? Such a magnificent piece, I’m told. I am so curious about it.”

Lan XiChen stepped up, standing in front of the Jin sect leader. “The Tiger Seal is currently missing. It was in the tent at the Nightless City where Xu Daifu treated him. But it was not taken to Cloud Recesses.” He’s lying. “Jiang ZongZhu… did it come here to Lotus Pier?”

“No.” the young sect leader looked confused. “I was under the impression it was with Wei WuXian.”

“I don’t have it,” Wei WuXian lied again. “Maybe it got left behind at the Nightless City?”

Jin GuangShan looked furious. “It wasn’t there. We scoured the city for any and all spiritual artifacts. We would have found it.”

“Ahh. It’s not a spiritual artifact, though, is it?” Wei WuXian bowed slightly. “Jiang ZongZhu, please excuse me. I’m afraid I’m not as well as I look.”

“You may leave. My sister has asked that you attend her later if you’re feeling up to it.”

“I look forward to that,” Wei WuXian bowed again, and wended his way through the crowd to the front entrance.

Lan WangJi wasn’t sure what had just happened. Politics are too complicated. Why is Jin GuangShan discussing the Tiger Seal? Why did XiongZhang and Wei Ying lie about it’s location? What am I missing?

The trial began the next morning, with the DafanWen villagers explaining what happened. After the fourth retelling, Jiang WanYin stopped the trial. “I think we all know what happened from the villagers’ point of view. I would like to hear from the Jin side.”

Of course, the Jin soldiers had a slightly different slant. The murdered villagers had resisted arrest. The raped women had invited the soldiers and were willing partners. The screams were of joy, not pain. Again, after the fourth soldier, he asked to move on to the next set of witnesses: the GusuLan. 

At this rate, the trial will take only a day or two. Lan WangJi gave his honest testimony: he detailed what he saw in the village as well as what happened when he arrived after the bat king attacked the prisoners. 

Then it was Wen QiongLin’s turn to testify. Then Wen Qing’s. Then, lastly, Jin ZiXun. Jiang WanYin stood up. “I will think about what I’ve heard today, and give my ruling tomorrow.”

Jin ZiXun sneered. “Make sure no one tries to sway you to their side.”

“Like a bribe?”

“Yes.”

Jiang WanYin looked at the DafanWen and sighed. “I don’t think I have to worry about being bribed by your accusers. They don’t look like they have any money to spare.”

Lan WangJi, perhaps for the first time in his political life, heard the rest of Jiang’s ZongZhu’s statement: ‘unlike your uncle’. 

Chapter Text

The verdict was delivered at mid-morning the following day: Jin ZiXun was guilty of the murders of twelve men, five women, and one child. The death price was disgustingly low, in Lan WangJi’s opinion. The cultivator could pay it with his pocket money, which would be easily replenished. Jiang WanYin suggested Jin GuangShan further punish his disciple with physical punishment or being evicted from the sect. Everyone present knew Jin ZiXun might be sentenced to being banned from night hunts for a week or two. But nothing more strenuous than that. 

Jin GuangShan brought up the Tiger Seal no less than ten times as the verdict was being argued. Jiang WanYin repeated over and over that he didn’t know where the Seal was. Lan XiChen, looking irritated, also repeated his statement from the night before. Lan WangJi, when appealed to, merely glared at the Jin sect leader until the older man dropped his gaze.

Wei WuXian conveniently did not appear anywhere near Sword Hall.

“Lan Zhan!” Wei WuXian hissed when lunch was over. “Come with me!” 

“Where are we going?”

“It’s a surprise.” Wei WuXian led them outside of the main compound, to where wooden walkways were replaced by dirt paths. At a junction in the path, he grinned. “Don’t go down that way; that’s for women only.” He flipped a sign over, and led the way to a building with four doors. “Inside, you’ll use the soap and brushes and scrub down. Then rinse with the second basin. Use the door on the back to leave.”

“Where are we? Why do I have to bathe?”

“A hot pool! A Jiang from way back found a way to create them.” He handed over a pile of purple cloth. “You can bathe in the pools naked or as clothed as you prefer. Most men use these short trousers for modesty. Leave your regular clothes on the shelf.”

“Short trousers?” Lan WangJi held them to his waist; they didn’t even reach his knees.

“If you want to preserve your modesty.” Wei WuXian grinned, unrepentant. “Some of the men prefer to soak without any barrier between them and the water. I will admit, it’s freeing.”

“Shameless!”

“That’s me!” Wei WuXian laughed. “I’ll be wearing mine.” He then disappeared behind one of the doors. 

Lan WangJi chose the adjacent door, and stripped, feeling very naked. More than he usually did when he was going to bathe. The thought of seeing a wet, nearly naked Wei Ying had his body reacting. The thought that he would also be wet and very nearly naked…. I should take care of this now? Or hope that I can control myself? He tried to change his focus away from his arousal. The soap had a subtle floral scent. Lotus flowers? Orchids? Through the other door, he hears Wei Ying call out, “I like to put my hair up. It tends to get all straggly in the heat. If you want, there’s usually a hair pin in one of the drawers.” Lan WangJi opened the only drawer he could see, and, yes, there was a hair stick. He carefully removed his guan and forehead ribbon, and wound his hair up into a high bun, securing it in place with the stick. By this time, he was happy to see his erection had softened sufficiently; he would not embarrass himself. 

Wei Ying was sitting on a flat rock at the far side of the pool. “I forgot how hot the water is. Compared to the stream in the back of my house in Cloud Recesses, this is practically boiling.” He smiled as he said it, though. As if happy just to be back in Lotus Pier. 

The water was hot. Much hotter than anything Lan WangJi had experienced before. So he entered slowly, allowing his body to adjust. Allowing his Core to cool him as necessary. Just as it heated him when he soaked in the Cold Springs. “Does it feel hotter because your Core is still damaged?” He used the polite fiction in case there was anyone lurking on the other side of the trees surrounding the pool.

“Damaged?” Wei Ying laughed and kicked his heels in the water. “I thought you understood what happened.”

“Eavesdroppers.”

“Ah. Yes.” Wei Ying scooted forward so that his calves were now soaking. “There’s a privacy spell around the pools. Jiang Cheng and I tried more than once to see how loud one could get and be heard outside of here.” He sighed and kicked his legs. “You’re probably correct. I haven’t been able to regulate my temperature since I gave my Core to Jiang Cheng. I’m usually cold, so I should appreciate being warm, right?”

Lan WangJi waded further into the pool; the hot water now lapped at his thighs, wetting the purple garment. “Jin ZongZhu is very interested in the whereabouts of your Tiger Seal. He mentioned it again several times this morning.”

“It’s safe, don’t worry.” Wei WuXian smiled. “I grew up here, remember? I know where all the most secure hiding places are.”

“Jin ZongZhu may ask Jiang ZongZhu to open the sect vault to prove it’s not here.”

“The sect vault is blood sealed,” Wei WuXian hopped off his rock to stand in the water. “Hot! Fuck, that’s hot!” he cried out. “I’m not a Jiang by blood.”

“So you can’t enter the vault.”

“Who said that?” Wei WuXian grinned. “Of course, I know how to get into the vault. It’s very dangerous to only allow blood relatives in. What would happen if Jiang Cheng and ShiJie were to die unexpectedly? The vault would be sealed forever? And no one would know where it was located? Such a bad design, huh? Doesn’t matter, though. I didn’t store my Seal there. I have more secure hiding places than someone else’s family vault.”

“Good.” Lan WangJi wanted to close his eyes. But he couldn’t look away. Wei Ying’s short pants clung . To his hips. To his legs. The water was clear enough that he could easily see outlines of everything the fabric touched. He sunk into the water in an attempt to hide his body’s reaction. It wasn’t like the Cold Springs; the heat didn’t suppress his body. He wanted . Steam from the water made Wei Ying’s lips look wet and inviting. Wisps of curling hair were escaping Wei Ying’s bun. His hands itched to pull on them. To wind the strands around his fingers, to use them to hold Wei Ying’s body close. Close enough to touch, to taste. He burned with want. Hotter than the water, it seemed.

Wei Ying was looking right back. “Ha ha, Lan Zhan. You look like you want to kiss me again.” Lan Zhan could feel his friend’s silver eyes, focused as they were on his own lips. “I love the way you look when you look at me like this. Like I’m the only other person in the whole world.”

“Wei Ying,” spilled out from his mouth. The rest of what he might have wanted to say stuck to the back of his teeth, stayed locked in his throat. Kiss me. I want you. There was so much skin on display…. Touch me. Let me touch you. Images assaulted his brain. His hand sliding up a slim leg to disappear underneath that purple fabric. To stroke the flesh found within. To pick Wei Ying up and place him back on that rock, short trousers floating to the bottom of the pool. He swallowed back a burst of saliva. He wanted to suck, to taste his friend. He’d never tasted his own release; would it be salty like blood? Or sweet? Or like something he’d never be able to conjure up? As Head of Discipline, he’d confiscated far too many erotic books, most of them from Nie HuaiSang, and looked at enough of them himself to understand what exactly his body craved, even if he craved the wrong gender. It was so easy to picture himself in the woman’s position, on his knees before Wei Ying, worshiping his friend’s body. It was just as easy to picture Wei Ying reciprocating, falling to his knees and sucking his friend to completion. 

Wei Ying half walked, half swum across the pool. “Lan Zhan… where did you go just now? You looked so fierce…. You’re beautiful, but when you look like that?” He shivered despite the heat. “I can only imagine you ravaging your wife.” It sounded like a tease….

“Not a wife,” slipped out of his mouth. 

Wei Ying’s eyes skipped from teasing to what could only be described as ‘want’. “Is that look for me, then? Is it me you’re ravaging in your head?”

They were so close…. A mere two steps short separated them: Lan WangJi crouching in the water hiding his erection, Wei Ying standing as if waiting. The water lapped at them, soothing away aches. “Lan Zhan wants to kiss Wei Ying.”

“Wei Ying wants that, too.”

Lan Zhan surged up out of the water, breathing suddenly much more intense. Wei Ying pressed against him, wet skin sliding against wet skin. Mouths meeting in a sweet kiss. It wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. He pressed their lips together, hard, one hand locked behind Wei Ying’s neck to hold him still, forcing his friend to open his own mouth, to allow their lips and tongues to caress, to linger, to taste. It was as intoxicating as the first time. More so, perhaps, because this time Wei Ying was a willing participant before the kiss was initiated. Lan Zhan luxuriated in feeling . They were chest to chest, breathing at times in harmony and at other times in opposition. And sometimes, when their bodies tilted just right , he could feel Wei Ying’s hardened nipples brushing against his own. 

“Lan Zhan? Am I supposed to enjoy it this much?” Wei Ying nipped a kiss against Lan Zhan’s jaw. “On the way here, I thought about kissing some of the women we met. No one,” he gasped as Lan Zhan bit his neck. “Fuck that feels good. Isn’t biting supposed to hurt?” He lowered his own head and tried to copy.

“Harder,” Lan Zhan encouraged his friend. Lover? Can we call each other lovers? The next attempt was obviously successful: Lan Zhan was unable to control his hips’ response to the stimuli.

“As I was saying… I thought about kissing some of the women we met.” Wei Ying spoke against the neck he was nuzzling, caressing it with his lips and cheek. “There were some very pretty girls, too. But…. All I could think about was you. Doing this with you. Is there something wrong with me that I want to kiss you and not those girls?”

“Lan Zhan didn’t want to kiss them, either.” He lowered his head, nudging Wei Ying’s back, pressed his lips against the bite mark and sucked, gently at first, then harder as Wei Ying spasmed in his arms, moaning.

“Lan Zhan… we need to stop or I’m going to finish.”

“Then finish.” Wei Ying tried to pull back; Lan Zhan wrapped a hand around his lover’s waist, holding their hips pressed together. “Stay.”

“But Lan Zhan! We can’t just… right?”

“Why not?” He tried to keep his voice light. As if the answer didn’t mean anything. As if his erection was nonexistent. 

“Because you don’t just…” Wei Ying made a crude gesture with a hand, “do that with other people around! Do you?”

Lan Zhan shrugged. “Never wanted to do it with anyone else. Never thought about doing it with anyone else. Want to see Wei Ying. Want to touch Wei Ying.”

Wei Ying’s eyes darkened to a deep silver. “You want to touch me?” Lan Zhan could only nod; words wouldn’t even come up his throat. “Touch me, Lan Zhan.” He wiggled a bit, and in his peripheral vision, Lan Zhan could see something purple floating away. 

“You’re naked,” he blurted out. Naked. 

No clothing in the way.

Just Wei Ying.

He forced his eyes to stay locked on his lover’s. He could see no hesitation in their silver depths. So he raised one hand, and placed it flat against his lover’s chest. “Tell me if you want me to stop,” he commanded and watched his fingers outline the Wen brand, then slide to circle around one firm, brown bud. “Beautiful,” he breathed. This was already beyond his tamest dreams, and far beyond any expectations. He let his hand trail down to circle the belly button. He could see it now, Wei Ying’s cock, bobbing in the hot water. “So beautiful.” He sounded like he was praying. Perhaps he was. Perhaps he was thanking the gods for answering his prayers. His fingers trailed down further, running through wiry hair to the throbbing shaft. He grasped it, softly, and felt his whole body exhale in tandem with Wei Ying. 

It felt amazing. The length and girth felt so comfortable in his hand. It was almost as if he was somehow more completely himself. He gave it a stroke, and felt himself shuddering in pleasure right along with his lover. 

There was a problem, though. His fingers were wrinkly; there was too much of the wrong kind of friction. What ideally would be a smooth glide was rough, and must be bordering unpleasant.

“Do you want me to touch you, too?” Wei Ying was nearly breathless.

“Not here. Wrong kind of wet.” He could feel the rest of his explanation jumbled in his mouth and he cursed internally at his inability to speak. And even if his mouth cooperated, how did one go about explaining that water wouldn’t ensure a slick and pleasurable glide?

“Wrong kind of wet,” Wei Ying laughed softly. “Only you would complain about that. You feel so good around me.” His hips shifted, rubbing his erection through Lan Zhan’s fist. “If you don’t mind, I’m going to ignore that water is an inefficient lubricant.” He shuddered and fucked his cock back through the loosening fist. “You feel so good. Can you just….” 

Lan Zhan captured his lover’s mouth with his, and tried to work his fist in tandem with Wei Ying’s thrusts. He swallowed his lover’s gasps of pleasure, held the body in his arms closer and slightly to the side, so there was room for his hand to move. 

“Lan Zhan, don’t stop. Please. Just. Like. That.” Wei Ying pulled his head back, huffing, shuddering. “Oh fuck. Yes. Fuck.” The cock swelled and Wei Ying’s body jerked a few times. 

Lan Zhan looked into the water. There were a few strands of a translucent off-white liquid floating and already starting to separate. He mourned its loss. I could have tasted it. Licked my fingers. His fingers were clean. How disappointing.

“Lan Zhan… that was… amazing.” Wei Ying sighed and almost fell forward to rest against Lan Zhan. “We should have done that back in the inn.”

“Mmm.” We should have. I wanted to. I wanted to force you to strip, to spread yourself out for me to feast as I desired. I wanted to shove myself into your mouth, your ass. Fill you with my spend. I wanted…. Still want. If I picked you up right now,, wrapped your legs around my waist, and forced my way into your body, would you fight for me to release you or to get closer? Would you hate me? He felt disgusted with his wants, perverted.

But maybe… just maybe Wei Ying was just as perverted? Or almost as perverted? He, too, wanted to be touched. Wanted to touch in return. 

Wei Ying forced himself to stand up on his own. “If we dress now, I think we still have time to ourselves before dinner is called.” His eyes looked down, and his cheeks pinked up in a manner that suggested it wasn’t the water’s heat coloring them. “You haven’t seen my room yet…. I’m not sharing with anyone, you know.” He looked back up into Lan Zhan’s eyes. “You could even stay in my room if you wanted. To give Lan XiChen some privacy to talk about sect leader stuff?”

Are you asking me to share your bed again? To do more than just sleep? “Mmm. I have spent sufficient time in this pool.” Will you take me into your arms? Into your body? Or just use your hands?

Chapter Text

They were dressed and walking rather swiftly towards the family rooms when they encountered Wen Qing. “Lan Er GongZi, is Wei WuXian the cultivator you asked me to look at?”

“Mmm.”

“I thought so. You will come with me,” she ordered the younger man.

“You really don’t have to,” he protested. “I’m doing fine. Really. I’m eating properly and meditating and everything.”

“Wei WuXian!”

Lan WangJi shoved his disappointment far down. “Wei Ying, you should go have her take a look. She is far more knowledgeable than the GusuLan doctors.”

“Yes,” Wen Qing agreed. “I am far more knowledgeable. My brother and I have rooms in the town. Come.” She cast an unsure glance at Lan WangJi. “Alone.”

“He knows, Wen Daifu.” Wei WuXian looked a bit sheepish. “Apparently I talk in my sleep.”

Wen Qing looked partly reassured, partly amazed, and partly exacerbated. “Does your sect leader know?”

“No. And he doesn’t need to,” Wei WuXian insisted. 

“Yes, he does,” the other two insisted right back.

The three walked out of Lotus Pier into the town and split up: Wei WuXian and Wen Qing to head to her lodgings and Lan WangJi stepped into a bookshop.

The proprietor was all smiles and abject bows. “How can this one assist such an elegant cultivator?”

“I was hoping to see if you had a book of poetry I haven’t read.”

“Poetry?” The salesman looked amused. He led the way to where the poetry books were. “The books you’re really looking for are in the back right of the store.”

“I am looking for poetry,” Lan WangJi insisted.

“Of course. Of course,” he winked in agreement. “I have many white ribbon patrons who look for poetry and leave with books from that corner. Some even buy poetry. Most don’t.”

“White ribbon patrons?”

“Yes.” The man ran a circle around his head. “Like you. Wearing the white ribbon.”

“What are the books in the corner?” Lan WangJi was genuinely curious what his fellow disciples read if it wasn’t poetry. Perhaps fictional stories? History? Plays?

“Come. I’ll show you.” The two walked over to the back right section of the store. The proprietor picked up one slim volume. “This is a very popular book among the white ribbons.”

Lan WangJi opened it to see a picture of a naked woman spread out on a bed and an equally naked man crouched between her thighs and slammed it shut. “Pornography?” 

The older man chuckled. “Weird isn’t it? I hear that the head of discipline for your sect is overly righteous. Destroys any and all spring books he finds. Here,” he handed Lan WangJi another book. “This one is also popular. I’m not sure why. More white ribbons buy these than any other sect.” Lan WangJi carefully opened the new book; it was again full of naked people, but this time only men. “I think it might be because they keep men and women separated there? That’s what I heard, anyway. So… what’s a young man to do when there’s no women to play with?”

“Men do this with other men ?” He was aware that he sounded scandalized, but in reality…. I’m not abnormal? Other men feel this way? Other men want to be with men? 

“Sure. Cut sleeve spring books are more popular with cultivators than with normal folks. Must be all that night hunting, huh?” The proprietor grinned, like he was sharing a secret. “Out in the woods with no one but another man for company? You get urges and there’s just another man to sate them with?” He chuckled again. “Not anything I’m interested in. But… it sells.” He grabbed a few more books. “Take a look. See what you like. I’ve got a bit of everything. Harems and courtesans, bondage, virgins.” He pulled a book off the shelf. “Speaking of virgins… this one is very popular among the white ribbons. Rogue cultivator meets juniors on night hunts, and he seduces them.”

Lan WangJi was left alone, feeling helpless and relieved at the same time, in the face of so many spring books. He flipped through the last book he was given. The rogue cultivator was indiscriminate in his choices. Sometimes he ravished a young boy. And sometimes a young girl. He seemed to enjoy making his lovers feel pain, biting them on the neck or nipple or buttock as he pleased. Biting hard enough to draw blood at times. He relished the chase, when one of his victims, and they could only be called victims, tried to run. He relished catching them, forcing them to their knees or backs and filling them. The victims all cried in pain as he first shoved into them, but soon those cries turned to ones of pleasure as he pounded into them. 

It was humiliating how much he envied that character. How much his dreams resembled that character. 

It was even more humiliating to purchase the book.

Books. All featured cut sleeves, which appeared to be the phrase for men having relations with other men. Research. It’s for research. I had no idea…. I’m not the only man who wants to be with another man. I’m not the only one who wants to give my lover pain/pleasure, who wants to bend him to my will. Not that he was completely one sided in those desires. Wei Ying had bitten him back in the pool; he had quite enjoyed the feeling. He also didn’t think he’d mind being shoved to his knees and forced to suck Wei Ying to completion. 

He walked towards the inn where Wen Qing and her people were staying, and felt as if everyone he passed knew what was in his qiankun pouch and was judging him for it. ‘ Cut sleeve !’ their casual glances seemed to shout. 

Wei WuXian wouldn’t look at him. He looked everywhere but him. His feet tapped, his hands alternately fisted or smoothed imaginary wrinkles from his outer robe. “Wen Daifu says I’m as healthy as I’m going to be unless I can eradicate the resentful energy swirling through my meridians. Which might be possible, and I have a few theories, but no time at the moment to work on them.”

“Wei Ying,” Lan WangJi followed his friend out of the inn. “Are the Wen going to be alright?”

“Not sure,” Wei WuXian hedged, looked at his friend, and broke into a full blown blush. “I don’t recommend them going back to Dafan Shan; there’s nothing stopping Jin whats-his-face from attacking them again. But where they can go and be safe?” He hmmed for a bit, and fast walked a few steps ahead. “Hey, Lan Zhan! Is there anywhere near Cloud Recesses they can settle? I’m going to ask Jiang Cheng, too. See if there’s land near here. They’ve got a kid with them. Practically a baby! So, you see why we need to find somewhere safe? It was bad enough that adults were sent to be bait, but a kid? What kind of asshole thinks, ‘yeah, I’m fine with a bat king eating a toddler. No problem’?” 

“Will talk to XiongZhang tonight,” Lan WangJi promised. He’d known about the kid, but hadn’t thought about the Jin repeating their mistake. He’d like to think that Jin GuangShan was aware of his kin’s errors and would ensure they never happened again. A sect leader should protect the innocent! Given the Jin sect leader’s inquiries regarding the Tiger Seal, he had the feeling that protecting innocents was nowhere near as important as gaining access to Wei WuXian’s invention….

Chapter Text

Wei WuXian walked through the darkening streets back to Lotus Pier, deliberately not touching his chest to verify that the book was still safely within his robe’s lapel pocket. He felt jittery after his conversation with the Wen doctor. She really should just stick to being a doctor. Not… He couldn’t look at Lan Zhan. Not after what they had done to each other. Well, done to him more than to each other.

Wen Qing had been satisfied with his body’s progress and the level of yin energy in his meridians and dantians. She had looked smug when she reminded him that masturbation was healthy, before questioning whether his earlier orgasm was a solo endeavor or involved a woman and did he know how to prevent pregnancy? How embarrassing. He’d lied, and said it was just him. Could she see through the lie? But would she suspect it was Lan Zhan who did it to me? Never. No one would suspect. How could they? He looks so pure and untouchable. He had looked very touchable in the hot pool…. The way his skin glistened with water droplets or sweat? The way his short trousers clung so deliciously to his body? The naked expanse of skin that made his fingers and tongue ache to touch, to taste. The way they had pressed so close together? Wei WuXian had half wanted to find a way to crawl into Lan Zhan’s body. He had felt far more drunk than he ever had with alcohol.

The after effects were worse. Shameless. What must he think of me? Kissing him like that? Exposing myself to his touch like that? Letting him bring me off? To be fair, I did offer to do the same to him…. How can I? He mentally wailed like a toddler deprived of sweets. He barely even tolerates me, and I kissed him! His memory skewed to the other inn, and Lan Zhan kissing him first. I must have seduced him? Made him feel so bad for me that kissing was the only response? It made no sense. 

Nothing did. Lan Zhan kissing him. Lan Zhan getting aroused from kissing him. Lan Zhan touching him and making him orgasm. Agreeing to go to his room and continuing where they left off. 

None of it made sense.

Unless…. 

Unless… Wei WuXian peeked at his friend, looking so serene and royal and handsome and perfect… unless somehow he honestly wants it? Wants me? He’d question if men could want each other like that, except the book currently boring its way into his chest had a chapter that showed, yes, men can and do want to be intimate with each other.

Wen Qing had been brutally honest about his Core, or lack of one. “Your meridians are still fine, if atrophying from lack of use. You do have yang energy storing in them, it just has no way of concentrating sufficiently for you to use it for more than a weak burst. Without an additional surgery to implant someone else’s Golden Core, you are going to remain mortal.”

“I know that,” Wei WuXian had protested. 

“The one other possibility I can think of is dual cultivation.”

“Wen Daifu!” Wei WuXian had blushed. “Shouldn’t that wait until I’m married?”

“Dual cultivation is more than having sex and passing qi between bodies like you do when helping someone to heal,” she had scolded. “It doesn’t even necessarily require sex to occur.” She’d handed him the book. “Proper dual cultivation is extremely painful to both partners. You are basically pushing all of the qi from your body into your partner’s, overwhelming both of your meridians and Golden Cores. It is this overloading that pushes the Core to expand and grow. 

“I would say the pain level is on par with childbirth or having a limb removed with no anesthesia. I have never been in so much pain in my life.”

“You did it?”

“Of course. Part of my training was to experience as many treatments as possible, so I can understand what my patients will go through. 

“Because dual cultivation is so painful, many people who would try it, prefer to do it while having sex. The lead up to orgasm, and orgasm itself, alleviates a lot of the pain, bringing it down to perhaps the level of fracturing a bone. Thankfully, the pain leaves rather quickly. It is not recommended that practitioners with a fully formed Core do it more than once or twice a year. Given that you don’t have a Core… I would recommend once a month for a year or until a Core forms. Then three or four times more the first year after a Core forms, and no more than twice a year from then on.

“And you think that dual cultivation will help me?” Wei WuXian held the book gingerly, but flipped through the pages to see what she was talking about. The first chapters were about just doing it. The next chapters showed partners of opposite genders practicing dual cultivation through sex. Then the chapters switched to same gender dual cultivation through sex. Wei WuXian could feel his entire body blushing at seeing images of two very naked men joined together at the hips. He shoved the book into his lapel pocket. 

“I think that if you partner with someone who has a sufficiently strong Core, it’s possible for you to cultivate a new Core. Possible. Not guaranteed. Your best option is Jiang WanYin, of course.”

“That would mean explaining to him what I did.”

“Yes.” Wei WuXian pouted, feeling that the doctor was not so subtly judging him for his choice to keep his sect leader uninformed. “Either of the Jades should also be suitable, if you want to work with a man. I don’t know many women cultivators.”

“It’s fine. I’ll figure something out.” He escaped her clutches only to be caught in Lan Zhan’s. 

Thankfully for his sanity, a messenger had been waiting at the gates for Lan WangJi. “Lan Er GongZi…. Your presence is requested by Lan ZongZhu in your quarters.”

Wei WuXian breathed a sigh of relief. Not that he wasn’t willing to reciprocate for their earlier activities, he was, he was just unsure how to start . It had seemed so natural back in the pool. Bare skin, hot water, steam, wet skin, and then kissing . He’d have none of that in his rooms.

His relief was short-lived: his own presence was required at the Jiang family shrine.

Jiang YanLi was polishing the memorial tablets. “A’Xian. Thank you for coming so quickly.”

“Of course, ShiJie.” He sat at her feet. “How can I help?”

“I just wanted to see how you were doing. Will you stay here or go back to Cloud Recesses?”

“I should stay here, right?”

“A’Xian,” she carefully placed the tablet back in place. “You need to do what is right for you. I understand you are not healed. You still cannot use your sword, right?” He nodded. “So your usefulness here is limited. A’Cheng needs you, of course. He needs the whole you. Not just a body to help rebuild. He needs you to resume teaching the juniors. Without a fully functioning Core, can you do that?”

“I feel guilty and useless there.” He laid his head on her knee. “And the food is horrible. I miss you terribly.”

She ran a hand through his hair, smoothing out a few snarls. “They have you teaching archery, I hear. And Lan Er GongZi is teaching his juniors how to use their healing music to help you. So you are not useless.”

“I can teach archery here, too.” He knew he sounded childish. He didn’t care.

“Of course you can. If you stay here, will your Core ever heal?”

“There’s no guarantee it will ever go back to normal. I’m pretty sure it won’t.” Dual cultivation was something he was going to have to think about. “ShiJie…. What should I do?”

“You need to do what’s best for you at the moment. Although… you might be asked to come home in the next few months anyways.” Her hand stilled. “Jin ZiXuan has asked me to marry him. I’ve accepted.”

“You’re engaged?” Wei WuXian sat properly and smiled at his blushing sister. “Congratulations!” He pretended to frown. “Jin ZiXuan had better treat you properly or he’s going to meet more than my fist. But ShiJi….” he shook his head, not comprehending. “What changed? He treated you so horribly, and now you’re going to marry him?”

“I like him, A’Xian. He says he misunderstood me, and was angry at having no choice. Over the last few months of the war, he started to see me as a person, instead of just the woman his parents insisted he marry. We get along quite well, now.”

Wei WuXian laid his head back down on his shijie’s knee. “Isn’t marriage too confining? Here, you’re the second most powerful person only when it comes to cultivation. Everyone knows you rule Lotus Pier.  At Koi Tower? You’ll be subjected to his parents’ whims.”

“Isn’t that the lot of every woman?” she asked quietly and started combing his hair again with gentle fingers. “You have too many snarls, A’Xian.”

“I took Lan Zhan to the hot pool this morning. You know what that water does to my hair,” he whined. It’s not fair. ShiJie should be pampered and treated with the utmost respect. When she goes to Koi Tower, she’ll be no more than a daughter-in-law. Forced to kneel to her husband, no matter how ugly he treats her. Forced to bow down to his parents. ShiJie shouldn’t have to kneel to anyone! Jiang Cheng should put in the marriage contract that ShiJie is to be given a piece of land that is hers and hers alone. Where she can go to escape Jin ZiXuan if he ever puffs up like a peacock. Where she can ignore unreasonable demands from her in-laws. 

Nie HuaiSang entering the shrine interrupted his thoughts. “Wei Xiong! Jiang Guniang.”

“What brings you here?” Jiang YanLi asked.

Nie HuaiSang settled on one of the cushions. “There’s been a rash of break-ins. The room I’m sharing with DaGe is completely destroyed. Every piece of furniture is broken. The chests we brought are all smashed. Our clothing was completely ripped apart.”

“The same thing happened in our room,” Lan XiChen added as he and his brother entered the shrine. “So far, five rooms have been found. Jiang ZongZhu and his people are still searching Lotus Pier.”

“Five?” Wei WuXian sat up. “Who were in the other three?”

“Yours, Jiang Guniang’s, and Jin ZiXun’s. Jiang ZongZhu has asked that you four stay here under guard, while we investigate,” the Lan sect leader stated.

“Four? What about Jin ZiXun?” Nie HuaiSang asked.

“We can’t locate him,” Lan XiChen admitted. “Jiang ZongZhu has people looking for him as we speak.” He left leaving four slightly bewildered people behind.

“Why would they break into our rooms?” Wei WuXian asked.

“Obviously they must have been looking for something,” Nie HuaiSang snorted.

“In my clothing?” Jiang YanLi cried. “How did they get into the family sector?”

“We don’t know,” Nie HuaiSang admitted at the same time Lan WangJi spoke: “Yin Tiger Seal.”

“My Seal?” Wei WuXian repeated. “You think they were looking for my Seal? If so, I can see them searching my room for it. But why everyone else’s? Especially that Jin person?”

“Deniability?” Nie HuaiSang mused. “Which doesn’t make much sense, really, though. If you say you’re going to search the sect heirs’ rooms for the Seal, then shouldn’t it be Jin ZiXuan’s room that got ransacked?” He hmmphed and answered himself. “Jin ZiXuan is sharing a room with his father, though. And it simply isn’t good manners to destroy your own sect leader’s quarters. So… instead you ransack your own quarters to make it appear as if all the major sects were targeted instead of just Wei WuXian….”

“You think Jin ZiXun did this?’ Jiang YanLi whispered. “Why? I mean… why him?”

“Wen.” Lan WangJi offered.

Wei WuXian hmmed and started speaking his thoughts. “I’m pretty sure Jin GuangShan wants my Tiger Seal. He’s already angling to become the next Xiandu. With the Seal and the ability to control the dead?” He shivered delicately. “I also agree with Lan Zhan; the Wen are a problem for the Jin. No Jin disciple, no matter how closely related he is to Jin GuangShan, is going to use civilians as bait on a night hunt without tacit permission from him. Which means Jin GuangShan allowed the night hunt to proceed.”

Nie HuaiSang picked up the narrative. “So now that Lan WangJi has uncovered their scheme, and Jiang WanYin has listened to both sides and judged the Jin guilty…. Jin GuangShan needs the Yin Tiger Seal more than ever?”

“Who better to send to find the Seal than the person already caught in this mess….” Wei WuXian agreed. “So this Jin ZiXan,”

“Xun,” Lan WangJi interrupts.

“Xun, fine. Jin ZiXun suspects I’m lying and I’ve hidden the Seal in Lotus Pier. He goes through my room and can’t find it. But now it’s obvious that he’s looking for something that belongs to me. So… maybe I left it with my ShiJie. He’s already in the family sector, so he goes through her room. Nothing. Now it’s really obvious he’s looking for something the Jiang have….. So he goes after my friends, who also happen to be sect heirs. But then it looks suspicious that the Jin have been spared…. He can’t go after his own sect leader, plus there’s no way I hid the Seal in the Jin rooms.”

Nie HuaiSang nodded. “And now that he’s made a mess of things, and irritated three major sect leaders….”

Lan WangJi nodded as well. “They killed him.”

Wei WuXian’s face paled. “Which is why we’re all in this shrine together. Alibis? So Jin GuangShan can’t accuse one of us as the murderer?”

Chapter Text

A few sichens later, they were called to Sword Hall. Jin ZiXun's body lay upside down in a puddle on the floor in front of Jiang WanYin's throne. An elderly doctor knelt next to the body feeling around the skull. "Here," he announced. "You can feel where the skull has been depressed. And here," he motioned to another section. "You can see brain matter seeping out. He was hit from behind with a sword or a long knife or dagger, and either was knocked into the pond or was thrown into the pond where he drowned."

"A sword?" Jin GuangShan glared at Wei WuXian. "Hit from behind? Like a coward?"

Wei WuXian held out his empty hands. "I don't have a sword. Left it in the Cloud Recesses. Can't use it, you see. Resentful energy damaged my Core too much."

"As if you can't borrow someone else's sword?" Jin GuangYao scoffed.

"Allow me to demonstrate," Wei WuXian bowed. "May I borrow your sword?" Jin GuangYao looked suspicious, but unwrapped HenSheng from around his waist. Wei WuXian took it and tried his best to do a basic sword pattern. It was obvious to everyone in the room that he was incapable of performing at the strength needed to bash someone's skull open.

Lan WangJi unsheathed Bichen and strode over to the body. "I did not harm him." He shaved the back of the body's skull to show clearly that his blade did not cause the injury.

The bared skin now revealed an interesting wound pattern. "A straight blade could not have caused this injury," the elder stated. "The wound does not lie flat as it would if a blade like Bichen made it. It curves around the skull." Almost the entire room's eyes riveted onto Jin GuangYao's waist, where he was in the process of bending HenSheng to act as a belt. "Yes," the elder nodded. "A sword exactly like that could cause this wound pattern."

Lan XiChen held out his hand. "Your sword, A'Yao," he demanded.

Of course the blade was an exact match. Jin GuangYao held his head regally. "What else was I supposed to do? He was an embarrassment to the Sect. First, by using civilians as bait in a night hunt, then I found him destroying Nie ZongZhu's belongings!" The young man's face looked sad. "He was my cousin, and he was destroying our reputation. I had no choice." He turned pleading eyes at the Lan sect leader. "Er Ge... you believe me, right? He was deranged. Utterly mad. Cursing and spitting and claiming that he'd find the Yin Tiger Seal for my father and redeem his reputation. How can he find the Tiger Seal in Lotus Pier when everyone now knows it was lost in Qishan? How can he redeem himself by stealing from another Sect? How can he be redeeming himself by destroying other sect leader's possessions? I argued with him, begged him to kneel before everyone to confess his crimes. He struck me." Here Jin GuangYao pointed at a small bruise on his cheek. "I had no choice. I had to kill him before he hurt anyone else."

Wei WuXian wanted to laugh. Is anyone buying this? I'm an expert at spouting nonsense, and he's exceeding even my capabilities! Looking around the Hall, he saw that everyone appeared to know the smarmy man was lying. And yet... no one was calling for a trial or any sort of consequence. They're just going to allow it? Allow the claim that Jin ZiXun is the obviously guilty one. Completely ignore there's no way that either of them would do any of this without Jin GuangShan's permission or direct order?

Apparently, that was it. The body was wrapped and removed to Lanling for burial. Jin GuangShan placed a heavy hand on his son's shoulder and suggested Jin GuangYao might want to sit in meditation/seclusion for a week or two to cleanse his soul.

Jin GuangShan then announced the Phoenix Hunt would be placed on hold for three months so the family could properly mourn. But that everyone was still invited to attend once this short mourning period was over.

It won't do to mourn him for too long, huh? Not after everything he''s done for you? What a stupid man that Jin ZiXun was.... Why would he think I would just leave my Seal out for anyone to take? He must have been a complete idiot..... On the other hand, it might mean that the secret of where the Jiang vault is hidden is still a secret if he was searching rooms instead of the lakes. Not that he'd placed the Seal in the Jiang vaults. At fourteen and after being told where the Jiang vaults were and how to access them, even as a non-family member (what good was a blood lock if there was another vault which held thousands of vials of blood from every Jiang and all he needed to do was coat his hand with one vial, and he could enter?), he'd made his own little vault to secure his valuables: under the muck in the pond outside his room. No one else knew he'd built it. And it was blood locked only to him, so no one else would be able to enter even if they found it.

"Come back to Gusu with me," Lan WangJi asked quietly the following morning as everyone was preparing to leave.

"I'm needed here," Wei WuXian argued.

"Go to Gusu," Jiang YanLi begged. "Let them finish healing you, and then come home. We need you, yes. But we need you well, too."

Wei WuXian looked over his home. The burned buildings marred the peacefulness and serenity Lotus Pier usually exuded. "I'm of more use here," he protested.

"No, you're not." Jiang WanYin folded his arms over, trying to look more adult and important. "We don't need a Head Disciple who can't cultivate. Go to Gusu. Let them finish fixing you up. Then come home. And do it quick or I'll break your legs next time I'm up there."

Chapter Text

So a few days later, Wei WuXian found himself back in the Weifengshi. Back to teaching archery. Back to evenings of healing music played by juniors of varying skill. Back to Lan WangJi refusing to name the final song of the evening. 

Meal locations changed. He no longer ate in his rooms; as a teacher he was now expected to sit in the dining hall with everyone else. So in addition to being forced to eat bland,boring food, I get to sit in complete silence and get glared at when I dump chili oil onto my food in an attempt at having some flavor. He much preferred the silence of his rooms over the silence of the dining hall. 

He even walked around the newly rebuilt library a few times before gathering his courage and entering it. No one paid him any attention, other than a few casual nods of welcome or acknowledgement. There were few books on dual cultivation, and all of them focused exclusively on ‘doing it’ with a partner of the opposite sex. He supposed the techniques were similar, regardless of the genders involved. Wen Qing’s book explained quite clearly there was a different effect if done while having sex or not. He needed more information on the ‘not’ part. 

It was going to be embarrassing enough asking someone to dual cultivate with him, even without asking them to have sex with him. Especially since he wasn’t going to ask anyone to have sex with him until after he was married.

He had some shame, still.

Shame that exploded through his body every evening when it was just Lan WangJi playing that song for him. He hadn’t reciprocated…. And while his friend had never brought it up in conversation, he felt… conflicted. On the one hand, he had promised to do it. On the other hand… how does one go about saying, ‘hey, do you want to get naked so I can bring you off?’ without sounding crass. 

So he said nothing. 

The weather turned. The brightly colored autumn leaves fell and made crunching noises under their feet. Then snow fell. The New Year came with reserved observances so unlike the unrestrained celebrations of his childhood. Invitations to the Hunt at Phoenix arrived. 

Wei WuXian had made a shelter of sorts over the carved log at his stream, so he could sit there and listen to the water, regardless of the weather. It was snowing, and he was cold; he was enjoying the serenity far too much to go back to his house and the braziers warming his rooms. 

“Wei Ying is shivering,” Lan WangJi interrupted his solitude. 

Wei WuXian smiled up at his friend. “I’ll go in shortly.” He patted an empty patch of log. “Would you like to sit?” He looked back at the ice encrusted stream. “It’s a good spot to meditate today.”

“Hmmmm.” Lan WangJi accepted the offer and sat, attempting to keep a sliver of distance between them.

“Aiya, you’re warm!” Wei WuXian teased and knocked their shoulders together. “I can feel it even without touching.”

“Wei Ying should bring blankets.”

“It’s not that cold,” he protested. Then an arm wrapped around his waist, pulling their torsos and hips closer together. “Oh.”

“Lan Zhan will warm Wei Ying.” The arm slid away, pulled the attached white cloak around Wei WuXian’s shoulder and side, then resumed its position around his waist.

Warmth and the soothing scent that radiated ‘this is Lan Zhan’ enveloped him on three sides. “Lan Zhan….” He turned his face to his friend and promptly forgot whatever he was going to say. Golden eyes were blazing hot peering into his. “Lan Zhan….” His voice sounded weird…. Too low, too needy. Begging? Too loud, breaking the gurgling stream’s song as it tried to slither through the ice. 

“Wei Ying…” came the hoarse answer. 

“Yes,” he sighed and leaned forward to touch their foreheads together. He didn’t even really understand what he was agreeing to; if he was with Lan Zhan, did it even matter? The man could lead him off a steep cliff and he’d probably go willingly. The kiss, when it came, was softer than the snow falling around the shelter. They kept it just as light; just two sets of lips meeting gently over and over. “Lan Zhan…” Wei WuXian sighed when they parted. “Wen Qing said I might be able to form a Core again.”

“That’s good.” Lan WangJi squeezed the body in his arms. “That’s good.” It sounded like he was praying. “Can I help?”

“Yes.” Wei WuXian sat straight up and stared at a chunk of ice battering at a rock. “Don’t react until I finish the whole explanation, please.” Feeling his friend nod, he took a deep breath. “There’s a technique called dual cultivation.” He ignored Lan WangJi’s noisy intake. “Two people meditate together and push all of their qi into their partner. The excessiveness of qi is what enlarges their Cores. Wen Daifu thinks that if I dual cultivate with a strong enough partner, him pushing his qi into me might be enough for me to use. It’s not a guarantee.”

“You want to have sex with me?” Lan WangJi’s voice sounded very carefully bland, devoid of any connotations.

“No. I want to dual cultivate with you.” Wei WuXian could feel his face blushing. “There are ways to dual cultivate while having sex, but it’s not necessary.”

“Not necessary.”

Wei WuXian stood up. “Wen Daifu gave me a book. Would you like to read it? So you understand what I’m asking you to do?”

“Mmmm.”

Lan WangJi slowly closed the door to the Jingshi. ‘I want to dual cultivate with you.’ was repeating over and over in his head. Wei Ying! You nearly killed me today. I honestly thought my soul was going to leave my body. He pulled Wen Qing’s book out from his sleeve and stared at the cover. Dual cultivate but without sex. How does one do that? It was a topic brought up in classes one time, and no discussion was permitted. It was something to be done with a spouse only. What Wei Ying said, though? Was sex not a requirement? 

He made tea and thought about opening the book. He drank two pots of tea and continued to think about opening the book. He sat next to his uncle and ate dinner… thinking about reading the book. He prepared a bath and felt overly naked as he washed up. ‘I want to dual cultivate with you.’ I want to dual cultivate with you, too, Wei Ying. But the way I was taught about it. I want to become one person with you. I want to feel you surrounding me, holding me deep in your body, our qi winding through our bodies enhancing how we feel. I want you to fight me. I want to win you. I want to hold you down and fuck you until you can’t speak. And fill you. With my seed. With my qi. Do you want that? He poured hair oil into his hand. Instead of combing it through his hair, he shoved his hand under the water, and started stroking. I want your hands on me. Like you promised. I want to hold you still and use your mouth. I want to mount you while you cry. I want to see my bite marks on your neck, on your chest, on your thighs…. His hand worked faster. I want you to fuck my mouth, to use me for your pleasure. I want, Wei Ying. I want you. He gasped, disturbing the silence, shuddering his release into the water. 

He was playing his guqin in an attempt to calm his mind when Lan XiChen asked to enter the Jingshi. As tea steeped, the older brother asked, “Did you check as I asked in Caiyi? Does Wei WuXian have a scar over his dantian?” 

Lan WangJi nodded. “Why did you guess he had one?”

The elder closed his eyes and sighed. “At the beginning of the Sunshot Campaign, Jiang WanYin was drunk and complaining that his head disciple refused to carry a sword. He also mentioned going to the mountains and meeting with the immortal BaoShan SanRen. He claimed she gave him…. WangJi… there’s a reason Wen ZhuLiu was given the title ‘Core Melting Hand’.”

“He melted Jiang WanYin’s Core.”

“Yes. After Lotus Pier fell.”

Lan WangJi nodded at his brother and poured them tea. “What did he say the immortal gave him?”

“He said she gave him a Core. Which is impossible. You can’t just give people Cores. You have to cultivate them.”

“But Jiang ZongZhu has a Core,” Lan WangJi stated as calmly as he was capable.

Lan XiChen nodded and sighed. “Wei Gongzi refuses to carry his sword. And has a scar over his lower dantian. And nightmares about Wen Qing torturing him.” He practically dumped the cup of tea down his throat. “It is times like this that I envy those who can casually drink alcohol. Being able to drink myself into not thinking would be appreciated at times. 

“Was he forced? Did Jiang ZongZhu make his head disciple give him his Core? BaoShan SanRen giving him a Core was a lie, but was it an intentional lie or unwitting?”

Lan WangJi shook his head. “I do not believe Jiang WanYin knows what Wei Ying did.”

The two men drank their tea in silence. Then, “We will keep Wei Gongzi’s secret. Perhaps since it was surgically removed he can successfully cultivate a new one. In the meantime…. I do not think it prudent for Wei Gongzi to attend the Phoenix Hunt. Jin GuangShan is far too interested in that Yin Tiger Seal. I feel it best if the two are not in the same vicinity. Will you remain in Cloud Recesses with him?”

“Mmm.” Of course I will stay with him. “XiongZhang… what do you know of dual cultivation that does not involve being intimate with your partner?”

“Dual cultivation? Are you and Wei Gongzi planning on….” Lan XiChen’s face could not hide his distress. “Are you and Wei Gongzi already….” Lan WangJi felt as if his whole body was bursting into flames from embarrassment. He could only make a negative sounding ‘mm’ noise. It was as if his lips were completely sealed; no words were going to get past them. “Can it be done without being intimate? I tried it once when I was a student in the guest lectures. We were pretty ignorant, so it didn’t work as it’s supposed to.”

Mouth suddenly unsealed, Lan WangJi nearly dropped his tea cup in amazement. “You’ve had sex?” 

“No!” Lan XiChen’s ears pinked up in embarrassment. “No. Like I said we were pretty ignorant. Shufu discussed dual cultivation as a theoretical practice, and… my friend and I decided that we should try it. It was a disaster. We both ended up in the infirmary for a few hours, but our Cores didn’t grow.”

“Infirmary?”

“Yes. Apparently if it’s done correctly, it’s pretty painful. It was painful enough when done incorrectly.”

Lan WangJi’s eyes veered off in the general direction of Wen Qing’s book. Painful? Wei Ying didn’t mention that part. If we’re successful…. We’re going to need to have a Healer watch over us? “Wen Daifu suggested dual cultivation might assist Wei Ying. She also says you can dual cultivate and remain celibate.”

“Did she?” Lan XiChen poured himself a cup of now lukewarm tea. “I suggested she take her people to a clan holding not too far from here. Wen Xu’s men murdered everyone in the clan. LanlingJin won’t be looking for them in Gusu. Why don’t you and Wei Gongzi go there during the Phoenix Hunt?”

Chapter Text

Someone was screaming. They really should shut them up, Wei WuXian mused and resisted leaving the darkness that surrounded his mind. He was calm here. No pain here. No screaming here. Is it me? Am I the one screaming?  

Memories filtered into the darkness. He and Lan WangJi had sat in lotus pose, knees touching. They had entered into a deep meditative trance. And then pushed their qi into the other. Encased in the comforting darkness, Wei WuXian probed his body. No Core. It didn’t work.

Wen Qing placed Wei WuXian’s wrist back on the bed. “He will wake within the day.”

“Four days.” Lan WangJi was angry. Scared. I did this to him. I hurt him so much he mentally retreated from us for four days! While I felt… nothing. He didn’t have sufficient qi to affect me. 

She frowned at the anger. “I told you before this started that it was going to be the most pain you had ever experienced. He was in a trance when it hit. It makes sense to stay there where there’s no pain and just let the body heal. 

“It wasn’t a waste. I have an idea of what happened. Or rather why nothing happened. Next month, you will have to play Cleansing to eradicate every bit of demonic energy from his dantians. It will probably help to have destroyed that Tiger Seal.” She glared at its heavily warded qiankun pouch. “It exudes demonic energy even under every bit of restricting talisman he knew how to create. His body absorbs it, just like a piece of cloth absorbs water.”

“Leave it in Cloud Recesses.”

She hmmed, thinking. “That might be a possibility. I think that returning to Cloud Recesses, and being once again in its presence would erase any progress we make here. No.” She stood up. “It needs to be destroyed or completely sealed before we continue. I have other work to do. I will be back later.”

Destroy the Yin Tiger Seal. Lan WangJi Sat on the floor near his friend’s head and wondered what that would do. Will it kill him? Can he even destroy it? Remembering how interested in that device the Jin sect leader had been made him want to agree with the doctor. If we destroy it, Jin GuangShan will never get a hold of it. Which is obviously a good and desirable result. Jin GuangShan being able to control the dead? He shivered. If we destroy it, and can’t dual cultivate our way into giving you a new Core, that will be quite bad for you. No longer having access to the device that makes you more powerful than any normal cultivator? You’re not powerless without it. Just…. Power in the hands of a man who wields it for good purposes should be protected. As power in the hands of a man who wields it only for his own good should be disallowed. 

It felt weird thinking this way. He had been taught since childhood that demonic energy was bad. That people who tried to use demonic energy were also bad. 

Wei Ying wasn’t bad. 

So were the Rules wrong? Or in need of adjustment? 

‘Who decides what is right and what is wrong?’ Wei Ying’s question upended everything Lan WangJi knew about his Sect’s Rules. 

Stealing is wrong. Stealing from the dead is wrong. Stealing from the dead in order to live? How can that be wrong? 

Killing is wrong. Killing in war is necessary. So is war wrong? Or is killing our enemy wrong? How can war be wrong when it is people rising up against a brutal dictator? 

Killing animals for food and eating meat is forbidden. And yet we have foraging hunts where our children learn how to trap animals and cook them in addition to learning how to identify edible plants. When separated from the group or lost, we prioritize eating to survive, not maintaining a strictly vegetarian diet. We also do not punish disciples who eat meat outside of our walls. And our healers give bone broth to sick people. 

“‘Who decides what is right and what is wrong?’” he recited quietly. “Right and wrong can mean nothing without context?” He caressed his friend’s slack face. “The same action can be both right and wrong depending on the circumstances? Even absolutes have shades of gray to them? Nothing is strictly black and white?” He let his fingers trail across pale lips.

He burned for more. To touch, to taste. Wei Ying was gone far into his mind; he would never know if Lan WangJi took liberties. Am I a monster, Wei Ying? That I want you like this? Those books I bought in Yunmeng? They show men can want other men. They claim it’s normal for men to want other men. It’s normal for men to want to tie up their lovers and force them to submit. 

I would like to try dual cultivating with you the way I learned it as a student. I want to shove my qi and my cock into your body until you’re screaming and you’re not sure if it’s pain or pleasure or both. Would you like that? Would you prefer that? Wen Daifu told me that she would search for female cultivators with a strong Core in case you decided you wanted to try that.

I’m selfish, Wei Ying. I really, really, really want to tell her ‘no’. Tell her that you’d do it with me, not some woman. He picked up his friend’s lax hand. I want to be the only one you hold hands with ever again. I want your hand in mine for the rest of our lives. If you ever do want to be with a woman? I’ll… I don’t know what I’d do. Want to kill her, I suppose. Drown in jealousy. I don’t know how I would be if you…. Please don’t. Please just… be with me. Just me. 

“Lan Zhan?” Wei WuXian’s voice was weak and barely audible. “It didn’t work.”

They quarreled, because of course they quarreled, about repeating dual cultivation. About cleansing. About the Yin Tiger Seal. 

The second month, they left the Seal with Lan XiChen before heading to the Wen’s home. Lan WangJi played Cleansing until he was certain he’d chased every bit of demonic energy from his friend’s body.

It failed again.

Wei WuXian worked hard to develop a container to store the Yin Tiger Seal in. He needed something that was locked to himself only in addition to it not leaking any resentful energy. Lan XiChen again kept the Seal, now sealed. Lan WangJi again Cleansed Wei WuXian of demonic energy.

It failed again.

Chapter Text

They postponed the fourth attempt because it was supposed to occur at the same time as Jiang YanLi’s wedding. 

The family rooms of the Jiang compound in Koi Tower were just as ostentatious as the public rooms. Wei WuXian was very happy to see that the room he was assigned was decidedly less so; everything non-wood in the room was painted a golden color, but at least they were neither made of gold nor plated in gold. “Gives me a headache,” he complained to his sect leader. 

“Once A’Jie’s wedding is over, you have to pack up from Cloud Recesses and come home,” Jiang WanYin ignored the whining. “I need you at home.”

“My Core is still damaged. Wen Daifu has a treatment plan in place, but it hasn’t worked so far. She’s hopeful; I think it’s a long shot.”

“Wen Daifu? You can continue the treatment. Just from here instead of there.”

Wei WuXian plopped onto a couch and folded his legs up under him. “And my work in Cloud Recesses? I’m just supposed to abandon them?”

Jiang WanYin glared at his head disciple. “Your first priority is to YunmengJiang. If Lan XiChen and Lan QiRen can’t understand you have a responsibility to my sect, they should probably read their three thousand rules again. I’m sure it’s in there somewhere.”

“Rule one thousand, five hundred, twenty-three. I think,” the older one sighed and shuddered. “I can’t believe I remember that. Alright. I’ll tell them. I’ll need to arrange with Lan WangJi, too.” He’s not going to be happy about not having daily access to clean my meridians anymore.

Jiang WanYin slumped on the other end of the couch. “You spend too much time with him. What’s the treatment plan?”

“With Wen Daifu?” The sect leader nodded. “I’m practicing dual cultivation. But so far…”

“I’ll kill her,” Jiang WanYin interrupted. “I’m going to wring her neck. Slowly.” He paused, fists clenched, Zidian flashing, “Unless she’s pregnant.”

“What? Why would you kill her?” Wei WuXian sat up straight.

“Dual cultivation? Without asking my permission? Is she pregnant? You’ll get married right away. Women die in childbirth all the time. I can make it seem like an accident, right?”

“Pregnant?” Wei WuXian screeched. “How would I know if Wen Daifu is pregnant? And why are you going to kill her?” He could feel his entire body turning bright red. I’m shameless. I’m not ‘let’s talk about women I barely know potentially being pregnant’ shameless!

Jiang WanYin snorted. “Don’t play dumb. You know how babies are made. So. Is she pregnant? Or can I kill her as soon as the wedding is over?”

“Please don’t kill anyone. I really don’t know if Wen Daifu is pregnant. She spends her time checking my meridians, not the other way around.”

Jiang WanYin yelled, “You’re fucking her and you don’t know if you got her pregnant?”

Wei WuXian’s face paled. “Fucking her? Who’s…. Me? I’m not… How? Why would you think I had sex with Wen Qing? She’d kill me for even suggesting it! Have you seen the size of her needles? Big as swords!”

The sect leader stood up and loomed over his shixiong. “You literally said you were dual cultivating with her. And now you’re saying you haven’t had sex? Which is it?”

“I’m not to both!!” Wei WuXian shuffled back on the couch a bit. “I’m not dual cultivating with Wen Qing in any case. She’s just watching and monitoring.”

Jiang WanYin’s face turned purple. “She’s watching you dual cultivate with someone? And you let her? What kind of perversion is going on over there? Who are you dual cultivating with?”

“Lan Zhan…” Wei WuXian started to explain, but his sect leader talked over him.

Roared over him. “I’ll kill him! I don’t even have to wait to see if you’re pregnant. I’ll castrate him first. Slowly. With a dull kitchen knife. Her, too. I’ll kill her, too, for allowing this. For watching you.”

“Castrate?’ Wei WuXian blanched and pressed his thighs together as much as possible. “You… you really don’t have to hurt Lan Zhan. He’s trying to help!”

“Help?” Jiang WanYin snorted. “Fucking you and calling it dual cultivation while Wen Qing watches is him trying to help? How is that helping you get your Core working properly?”

Wei WuXian stood and screamed at his sect leader. “I’m not fucking Lan Zhan!”

“Of course not,” Jiang YanLi calmly agreed from the doorway. “That would be crude. Lan Er Gongzi is not crude.” She smiled warmly. “Hello, A’Xian. I’m so glad you’re here.” She gave both of her brothers her hands and squeezed their’s tightly. “Perhaps A’Xian could start from the beginning? Without interruptions?” She gave her younger brother a stern glare.

“Yes,” the maligned one sniffed. “Lan Zhan and I dual cultivate once a month. We keep all of our clothing on, ChengCheng. We don’t touch, except at the knees. Wen Daifu holds one of my wrists to monitor my meridians and Core. We meditate for a couple of hours and then he shoves every bit of yang energy that he can into my body while I shove everything I have at him. I then spend the next four days in agonizing pain because dual cultivation hurts . It’s not exciting; it’s not titillating. It’s nothing like what we giggled over as kids. And I have no idea if Wen Qing is pregnant. I’m far too scared of her to even look the idea at her.”

“So I can’t kill them?” Jiang WanYin wrenched his hand away and hmphed back onto the couch, pouting in a grand imitation of a two year old deprived of a treat. “I can’t kill anyone apparently!”

“Who else do you want to kill?” Wei WuXian asked.

“Jin ZiXuan!”

“Why do you want to kill him?”

“He got A’Jie pregnant!”

Wei WuXian wrenched his hand from his shijie’s. “I’ll kill him, then. After the wedding. I’ll gut him and castrate him. We can feed him his entrails and then you can use that dull kitchen knife to cut his head off.”

Jiang YanLi laughed. “You can’t kill Jin ZiXuan. Sweet A’Xian… wanting to save my honor?”

“They did it on purpose,” Jiang WanYin grumped. “Jin GuangShan kept finding new reasons to postpone the wedding. This way he can’t stop it, and had to push it up before he destroyed his son’s reputation.”

Chapter Text

Wei WuXian tugged on his new robes. They weren’t exactly uncomfortable, and yet…. They were. He was dressed in Jiang purple for the first time in years. Since I was a junior disciple. His under clothes were white, then he had three layers of silk, each slightly darker than the previous. Then two layers of chiffon in light, almost white, purple, heavily embroidered around the hems with lotus flowers. Jiang YanLi insisted he have his hair pulled up properly, befitting the position of Head Disciple. At least the silk sleeves fit properly around my wrists. He flapped his arms, making the chiffon layers flutter. The others are as ridiculous as the Lan! How can one do anything with such annoying sleeves! I’m going to end up dunking them in my soup! He had gotten used to wearing more flowing sleeves than he preferred while living in Cloud Recesses, but not as long and flowy as he was currently wearing. 

“You look so handsome, A’Xian,” Jiang YanLi gently teased. “Didi, do you think we’ll get marriage offers for our Head Disciple tonight?”

Jiang WanYin wasn’t wearing chiffon. Wei WuXian frowned at seeing his sect leader looking far more comfortable in his seven layers of silk that stayed put with sleeves fitting tightly to his wrists. “The peacock had better behave tonight,” Wei WuXian growled, attempting to change the subject from his marriage back to hers. “Baby or no baby, I’ll punch his eyes out if he does anything to disrupt the wedding tomorrow.”

“A’Xuan isn’t going to postpone the wedding,” she promised with a smile. “But what about you? A’Cheng and I have already talked to matchmakers about him. What are you looking for in a wife? Besides being pretty.”

“A wife?” Wei WuXian felt like his lapels were squeezing his throat. “I’m not ready to get married anytime soon.” I’ll have to find one I want to kiss first. The only person I think about kissing is Lan Zhan…. And he’s not exactly wife material. Wrong gender, for a start.

Can two men get married? I suppose not, right? Sect heirs marry for heirs and wealth. I can’t give him either. Which doesn’t exactly answer the question of whether or not two men can get married, I suppose. Just answers the question for us. 

Why am I thinking of marrying Lan Zhan? ShiJie will find me someone nice, I suppose. Good alliance for the Sect. Jiang Cheng needs alliances. Allies. He’ll marry an heiress and I’ll marry someone who brings a decent trade agreement or something. 

That’s a really depressing reason to get married. Trade agreements. He looked at his shijie, who was marrying for affection, if not love, and tasted the bitter vinegar of jealousy. It would be nice if I could marry because I genuinely liked her. 

I wonder what Lan Zhan looks like in red. Probably as beautiful as he looks in white. Poor man couldn’t look ugly if he tried. I wonder what kind of woman he’ll be forced to marry…. She had better learn to appreciate his silences and ‘mmmm’ noises. He can talk when he needs to. Or wants to. Just most of the time he doesn’t need to talk. It’s good that we’re friends; I talk enough for the both of us. 

Not that that will help him once he’s married. Poor girl. I pity her the first few months of trying to learn what he says when he doesn’t speak. Because he does say a lot, if you pay attention. They better marry him off to someone genuinely good. He deserves that. She’ll have to be kind and gentle. And loving. 

One of us should marry for love, right? He deserves to be loved. 

He’s surrounded by so many people who respect him. Such a great swordsman and archer and he’s really the best at cultivation. Except for talismans; he’s not good with them. But I’m good enough for the both of us, so…. So yeah, everyone respects him. But that kind of puts him on the top of the mountain and they’re at the bottom worshiping him. He deserves someone who loves him because he’s Lan Zhan. Not because he’s HanGuang-Jun. For some reason, it felt right splitting his friend into two different personalities like that. The man and the ice king. 

The ice king was wearing blue. A light blue, the color of blue ice. With a sash of a deeper blue, that emphasized exactly how tiny his waist was in comparison to his shoulders. 

He was almost as handsome as Jiang YanLi was beautiful. She was wearing muted lavender silks heavily embroidered in gold thread. The shining embellishments emphasized how lustrous her hair and lips looked. She was glowing, happiness exuding from every cun of bare skin. Jin ZiXuan, standing at her side, looked utterly besotted. 

In contrast, Jin GuangShan looked utterly disgusted while Jin GuangYao looked utterly unimpressed. Poor ShiJie! Marrying into such a family! 

The feast went as most Jin feasts tended to be. Lots of toasts, ostensibly for the bride and groom, but so full of boasting that one could only wonder if the toaster was bragging about himself rather than wishing the bridal couple health and a happy marriage. Jin GuangShan strutted around the room, bestowing his ‘wisdom’ and advice on everyone. Jin GuangYao trotted along behind him, trying to smooth the ruffled feathers his father left. 

Wei WuXian, seated next to his sect leader, was in full view of the room. So he had to be extra careful to not dunk his sleeves in his food or allow them to be stepped on by passers-by. It was hard not getting drunk, too…. There were just so many toasts and it would be rude to not drink….

He wasn’t drunk; he felt… happy. As he hadn’t in a long time. Just happy. It was a simple concept and yet… so elusive. And then he burped and wasn’t quite as happy anymore. “That was interesting.” He was, however, quite proud that he wasn’t slurring his speech. “I’m not drunk.”

“Yes,” a pleasant voice agreed. 

“You know what?” Wei WuXian asked the air. Or whoever was holding him up. Whichever was listening. “I think I despise the color gold. I much prefer silver.”

“Mmm,” the voice agreed and pulled him sideways to walk around a puddle instead of through it. It was a suspiciously lumpy puddle. And it smelled. A vomit inducing smell.

“Come to think of it, that might actually be vomit,” he announced to the voice.

“Mmmm.”

“You sound like HanGuang-Jun,” he added conversationally. He stopped, swaying gently in place. “You look like Lan Zhan. Got his eyes,” he added, peering into the voice’s face. “Lan Zhan doesn’t like to wear colors. Just white. Maybe you’re Lan Wangji today.”

“Are you sure you’re not drunk?” Lan WangJi sounded fond. “I am Lan Zhan. White is not an appropriate color for weddings.”

“That makes sense.” Wei WuXian agreed and started moving again. “HanGuang-Jun makes noises. Mmm. Like that. Lan WangJi looks at me rather condescendingly. Lan Zhan… he’s my friend; he listens to me talk to me about nonsense and sometimes he even talks nonsense back. I much prefer Lan Zhan to HanGuang-Jun.”

“You make it seem like I’m three people.” Lan Zhan’s mouth ticked up at a corner.

“Three personalities, perhaps.” Wei WuXian took a deep breath and sighed it out. “I hate Koi Tower. It’s rather ugly here in early spring, isn’t it? No snow. No flowers. The trees are boring. Even the ponds look lifeless and boring. I guess it’s a good thing I have to return to Lotus Pier? At least it’s pretty there. A different pretty than Cloud Recesses.”

“You’re returning to Lotus Pier?”

“Yup. I have been ordered to clean out my stuff from the Weifengshi. I can go to Wen Qing for my next treatment. But then I have to report to Lotus Pier and resume my Head Disciple duties. I’m going to miss our evenings together.” He turned to his friend. “Will you play for me? Tonight? Now? Or are you too tired?”

“Not too tired.” They changed directions, heading to the Lan housing complex instead of the Jiang. 

Lan WangJi settled at a table before his guqin and began playing Calming. “Wei Ying…” he admonished the man walking around his room, peeking into what were obviously personal belongings.

“I’m here!” Wei WuXian joked, but acquiesced to the unspoken command and sat on the other side of the instrument in lotus position. “Lan Zhan… I’m going to miss these sessions.”

“Mmm.”

“Will you still meet with me at Wen Qing’s?”

“Mmm.”

The music slid from Calming to Cleansing. The younger man tried to focus on his meditation instead of the man playing. “I suppose your juniors will miss having someone to practice on, too?”

“Mmm.”

“Are you going to miss me?” Wei WuXian internally winced. He sounded needy and wanting, not calm and collected. He didn’t want to seem like he wanted to stay with Lan Zhan if the other didn't want him to stay first. “I’m so loud and obnoxious that I guess you’re going to be happy to resume a peaceful and quiet life?”

The music stopped. Lan WangJi’s hands resting lightly on the strings. “Will miss Wei Ying. Inner peace can be only found alongside chaos. Without noise, one cannot appreciate quiet.”

Wei WuXian blinked at his friend. “Do you mean that?”

Lan WangJi blinked back. “Mmm.” He lowered his gaze to the guqin and resumed playing. 

“When I was a student at your guest lectures, I had hoped we’d become friends. I’m glad we are now.” The admission slipped from his mouth without forethought. I had hoped you were my zhiji, Lan Zhan. I dreamed of making a life with you. I was such an innocent at fifteen. What did I know of reality and expectations at fifteen? I’ll go back to Lotus Pier and you’ll go back to Cloud Recesses. We’ll meet a few times for dual cultivation, and then…. Life will interfere. You’ll have duties. I’ll have duties. We’ll meet at conferences, weddings, and birth celebrations, I suppose. Maybe by chance on a night hunt. 

Did you ever dream of making a life with me, Lan Zhan? Did you ever consider me as something more than a friend? More than someone to kiss every once in a while? The song switched from Cleansing to that unknown song sang so long ago in a cave. “Did you name it ‘Zhiji’, Lan Zhan? Is that why you won’t tell me the name?”

Lan WangJi’s fingers slipped, creating a discordant sound. “That’s not its name.” Golden eyes looked up to bore into silver. “What do you think of me, Wei Ying?”

The younger man forced a light laugh to ease the tension. “You’re my best friend. Second most important person to me. You’re so funny, and no one else seems to notice. You’re fun to tease.”

“Not that. Who am I to you?”

Wei WuXian looked away, unwilling to let his friend read his thoughts in his eyes or expression. “You’re my weathervane. When you’re happy with me, I know I haven’t completely fucked everything up. Maybe I even did something good. When you’re upset, I know…. I know I did something wrong, and I need to fix it. You’re the only person who’s truly honest with me. In that… you may not speak of things, but when you do, it’s always the truth. I… I appreciate that. 

“When I’m with you… I feel…. I feel like I’m allowed to… just exist. ShiJie needs me to be her version of me. Her XianXian. Jiang Cheng needs me to be his Head Disciple and older brother and confidant and obey him and let him push me around. My friends and shidi and other sect leaders need me to be the mischievous Wei WuXian. The disobeyer of Rules. Genius at talismans. Genius at irritating everyone. But you… You just need me to be Wei Ying. No matter who Wei Ying is at that point in time. I can be happy or sad or need to scream in frustration and… you let me…. Just…. Be. Me. 

“I’m glad I had that with you in Cloud Recesses.”

Lan Zhan’s fingers plucked a few chords. “Stay with me, then. Come back to Gusu, and stay with me.”

“I can’t, Lan Zhan.” This time the laugh wasn’t forced as much as it was self deprecating. “I have responsibilities. Promises to keep. Jiang Cheng’s already talking to matchmakers. You have responsibilities. I’m sure your sect elders are already looking at potential brides for you and your brother.” He slid out of Lotus Position to hide his head in his knees. “You say ‘stay with me’, like it’s a possibility.”

“Then I will stay with you,” Lan WangJi asserted. “You need me to play for you. So I will stay with you and help you to heal. I’m sure Jiang ZongZhu can use my skills. I can watch over night hunts, at least.”

‘But… what about your responsibilities? Your brother will need you.”

“XiongZhang will understand.” Lan WangJi started wrapping his guqin. “It’s late. Will you stay here tonight?”

“No.” Wei WuXian stood up. “I have responsibilities early in the morning. Jiang Cheng will wake the entire Koi Tower up with his yelling if he can’t find me.”

Chapter Text

His outfit for the wedding was far more practical: a deep, rich, brown silk under robe embroidered in silver, and dark purple over robes embroidered in matching brown and silver. His guan was a simple silver circlet with a hairpin holding a single amethyst. It was elegant and understated, and, far more importantly, the sleeves were a manageable length. 

Jiang YanLi was, of course, absolutely beautiful in red and gold. 

Lan WangJi was breathtaking in white inner robes and a bright blue outer robe patterned with clouds. Wei WuXian wasn’t sure if his heart actually skipped a beat at seeing his friend dressed up so regally, or if it was just his imagination.

The wedding went smoothly; the peacock smiled like an idiot the whole time, so apparently he knew he was marrying far above his station. Jin GuangShan stayed silent, so apparently he knew he was not going to change his son’s mind. Jin GuangYao smiled his oily smile except when he looked at one of the women when his obsequious look turned to adoration; so apparently he had someone he admired.

Wei WuXian wanted to be happy for his martial sister, and sister of his heart, but… Jiang Shushu should be there. ShiJie shouldn’t just have Jiang Cheng as her family. 

“Wei Ying,” Lan WangJi was suddenly at his side, sounding concerned.

“It’s fine, Lan Zhan. I was just thinking it’s too sad that ShiJie doesn’t have her family there.”

“Not Wei Ying’s fault.”

The younger man laughed softly. “I know. You’ve made me understand I’m not to blame for Lotus Pier burning. I can still be sad, though, right?” 

“At least Jiang YanLi still has her brother,” Lan WangJi stated.

At least she still has him, he agreed silently. I won’t even have that much. It hit him, then, that he really would have no one with him at his own wedding. No parents. No siblings. No extended relatives. My wife will have no one to bow to. No one to serve tea to. No one. Between Lotus Pier and Cloud Recesses, he had over one hundred shidi and shimei. He had friends and acquaintances of all sorts. Two people who were as close and as loved as siblings. Lan Zhan. But no family. Not a single person who walked the world claimed Wei WuXian as family.  

It was too much. He had so much and at the same time…. He had nothing.

No family.

No Core.

He didn’t even have his own home. A room in Lotus Pier. A house in Cloud Recesses. Both lent to him. But not his…. 

All that truly belonged to him could fit in each hand: Suibian and the Yin Tiger Seal. 

Even his wife wasn’t going to be his to choose. Jiang Cheng or ShiJie would look at the available girls and find one that was the best match for the Sect. 

It was exactly what he had been prepared for, taught to expect, and yet…. Right now… in this moment… it wasn’t anything he wanted. Seeing his shijie marrying the man she loved who loved her in return made his stomach ache with wanting and jealousy. I want to love my wife, or at least like her! I want her to love me back. I want that love to be the reason we make our bows. I don’t want to be a pawn for a sect I’m not responsible for.

The memory of an old dream flew into his head: a small farm that was all his. Big enough to feed a small family but not too big. Lan Zhan keeping the house clean (because one of them was the clean one and one of them was quite messy, and they both knew which was which). Night hunting as they pleased. Fishing (and playing in the nearby river) when the heat of the day got too oppressive for weeding or harvesting. They’d have to hire a farmhand or two to help while they were hunting; maybe they could take in a couple of teens…. Maybe orphans…. They could be father figures to the young ones; teach them how to grow into respected adults.

Lan Zhan would have to be responsible for that part, actually. He’d just teach the kids how to have fun. 

He supposed he’d have to build a second house on the farm for his wife and family? He couldn’t imagine leaving them behind in Lotus Pier. Or would Lan Zhan just be a visitor from Cloud Recesses? 

Not that his dreams from his youth had involved a wife or children. Just living happily with his friend. 

Who was now a friend who had kissed him. And more.

He had no memory of the rest of the wedding. Just blurry remembrances of drinking too much and boring speeches interspersed with bawdy ones that probably had Jiang YanLi blushing furiously under her veil. 

He had no memory of how he got back to his room. Or why he was clinging to Lan Zhan’s waist, forehead resting against a blue clad shoulder, desperately trying to keep himself calm. “Wei Ying…. Please let me help you,” his friend was whispering, arms wrapped firmly around his back, holding him still… together…. “Take from me what you need.”

“You can’t give me what I need, Lan Zhan,” he insisted, still not exactly sure if he’d said anything incriminating before awakening.

“Then take what you want.”

Wei WuXian pulled his gaze from his friend’s shoulder to peer into golden orbs. “You shouldn’t make such offers, Lan Zhan. What if I try to take more than you’re willing to give?” Alcohol sloshing in his belly gave him the courage to pull his friend closer, until their breaths were mingling. “What if I want this?”

Idly he noticed Lan WangJi’s chest was moving more rapidly than before. “Take everything you want, Wei Ying.” So he did, slotting their lips together, as he had wanted to do for months. His hands were already on his friend’s waist; it made sense to let them have their way and start untying and unwrapping the sash holding his friend’s robes together. Fingers far more nimble than they should be given the copious amount of alcohol swimming through his veins, easily found and started untying those robes. “Wei Ying… are you sure?”

“Not sure of anything,” Wei Ying answered and moved from kissing Lan Zhan’s mouth, to nipping along the chiseled jaw. “I just want… can I touch you? Like you touched me in the hot pool?”

Lan Zhan shivered. “Can I touch you, too?” His hands slid from Wei Ying’s back to his sash. Wei Ying’s answer was a frantic nod and shoved his friend’s robes off his shoulders, exposing his upper half to the night air. Such beauty needed to be worshiped…. 

It was challenging kissing the smooth skin while simultaneously being stripped of his garments. He constrained himself to kissing and nibbling the bare shoulders… so enticing… so strong…. So soft and hard at the same time against his lips and tongue. Strength encased in silky skin. Eventually, he could feel hands caressing his own bare skin, chasing away the cool air. Skin on skin was far more enjoyable than being felt through silk layers. “Lan Zhan…” he moaned and bent to place a kiss over the other’s nipple. “Do you like this?”

“Mmm,” sounded like an affirmative.

He licked around the protruding nub. “Salty? Why is skin salty?”

“Wei Ying… stop talking.” Strong hands pulled him up to be kissed again, tongue shoving its way past his lips to caress his own. The attached body pressed and shoved until Wei Ying’s calves were against the bed’s platform. “Lay down,” the deep voice ordered into his ear. He shivered and practically fell as teeth gripped onto his ear lobe and tugged . For a disconcerting moment, he found himself falling… controlled falling… one arm firmly holding diagonally from waist to shoulder, the other reaching out to press against the bedding, preventing him from getting hurt. There was a knee between his legs. Hands shoved his ass over, so he was lying more in line with the bed, but now his legs were spread far enough apart for another knee to slide between them. “Is this alright?”

Alright? Was it alcohol or lust clouding his brain? “Good,” he managed to sigh. “So good.” He did some pulling of his own, pressing against Lan Zhan’s back and waist, pulling him down so their bodies were aligned. It wasn’t the first time they’d been in this position; it was the first time Wei Ying had initiated it, wanted it….

It felt… right. As if this was how they belonged. Skin to skin, body to body, Whole. He wrapped his legs around Lan Zhan’s; they felt better like this instead of being spread wide on the bed. He felt better like this. They felt better like this. His extremely interested in the proceedings body part was being pressed down by Lan Zhan’s equally interested body part. He shifted his hips up (how could he not?) and felt the answering response. “Lan Zhan….” 

“I am unsure of what to do now,” Lan Zhan sounded as cautious as his words. “Obviously, i know the mechanics….”

“I promised you I’d do the same to you as you did to me, right?” Wei Ying grinned and rolled, flipping their positions. “You need to take your trousers off. I’ll go find something.” He crawled off the bed to find where he’d hidden his bottle of oil. He returned to find a completely nude Lan Zhan lying stiffly on the bed, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. “Fuck, you’re beautiful. I’ve never seen a naked man before. I’m glad you’re my first. My only, probably. I can’t imagine kissing other men the way I kiss you.” 

He had meant ‘men’ when he said it. 

It felt like he really meant ‘person’. 

Is it really just Lan Zhan I want to do this with? Is it because it’s new? And I’ve never been like this with anyone else? I wonder… how long do these feelings last? We’re not going to have the opportunity to be together much, if at all, once I go back to Lotus Pier…. Because no matter what he said, there’s no way his brother is just going to let him abandon his sect duties for almost a year to dual cultivate with me.

“Wei Ying?”

“I’m here. Spread your legs a bit? I think it will be easier if I sit between them? Be like me doing this to myself, but backwards.” He grabbed a bowl of water and a washcloth, placed them on the floor next to the bed, then scooted onto the bed to kneel in the vee between his friend’s legs. “You really are beautiful, you know.” He experimentally ran a finger up Lan Zhan’s cock. “Pretty….” he breathed as it jumped. He wrapped his hand, softly, “Your skin here is… silky. Except for a few hairs.” He laughed, thoroughly enjoying the way the organ pulsed in his hand. “Feels weird holding it like this.” He gave an experimental pump, before withdrawing his hand to pour oil on it. “I’m so used to feeling the head from the other direction. Mine, I mean,” he babbled, “not anyone else’s, obviously.”

“Wei Ying…” Lan Zhan growled.

“Yes, yes. Let me enjoy myself?”

“You’re enjoying this?” Lan Zhan sounded skeptical.

Wei Ying laughed lightly, thrilled and unable to contain it, as he wrapped his oiled hand around the throbbing cock and stroked it a few times. “Very much. Reminds me of the first time I did this to myself. Same sort of excitement. Can we move, though? It’s kind of uncomfortable.” It took a bit of fiddling until they ended up with Wei WuXian sitting in front of his friend, legs around the hips, feet beside his friend’s shoulders while Lan Zhan’s legs were bent around Wei Ying’s hips. It gave Wei Ying the freedom to move his hands as he pleased and gave the man shuddering before him something more substantial to grip than the bedding. “You look so pretty like this, Lan Zhan. Like a banquet for me to feast on.” He twisted his hand as he stroked. “Do you like it like this? Gentle? Slow? Or do you want me to be harder? faster?” He idly kissed the knee near his face. “We should do this more often…”

“Wei Ying…”

“Yes?”

“Hard. And fast. And stop talking.”

“I like talking,” Wei Ying sassed. “Almost as much as I like doing this.” His hand was almost a blur. “You’re bigger than I am, but you already know that,” he babbled. “My hand has to travel further than when I’m doing this to myself. Can’t wrap my fingers around it, either, mmmph!” Lan Zhan surged up into a sitting position and slammed their lips together.

With one hand busy, and his mouth busy, Wei Ying surrendered to simply enjoying. 

A part of him was not enjoying being left out….

His free hand untied his trousers and slipped inside. It wasn’t oiled up; there was sufficient fluid dribbling to ease the friction burn.

It was also the wrong hand.

As if that mattered. 

He had a cock in each hand, a tongue in his mouth, a body wrapped around him. Lan Zhan’s cock was swelling even more in his hand. “Yes,” he moaned into his friend’s mouth. “I’m going with you. Finish with me….” His brain whited out for a few breaths. Warmth splashed over each of his hands, first one, then the other. Then they were panting into each other’s shoulders. “That was even better than at the pool.”

“That was better than anything I’ve felt in my whole life.” Lan Zhan pressed a kiss at the junction of neck and shoulder. “Thank you.”

Wei Ying extracted his hand from the mess in his trousers and leaned over to grab the bowl and washcloth. “Let me clean you up.”

“Your clothes.”

“Will wash clean. I learned how to wash my trousers a long time ago.” He grinned, feeling extremely satisfied. “Will you stay the night?” He hopped out of the bed, stripped the last pieces of clothing off, and began wiping himself down. 

“XiongZhang will wonder where I am.”

“Plus the Jin guards will see you creeping from my room? Oh well. Another time, I suppose.”

“Wei Ying… I want to stay.” The words sounded heartfelt; belied by Lan Zhan getting out of bed and pulling his clothing on. 

“I understand.” He did. 

He did understand. There were appearances to maintain. Two men sleeping together? One of the twin jades sleeping with another man? The scandal would be enormous. HanGuang-Jun’s nearly spotless reputation would be shredded. 

He understood; he just didn’t like it.

Chapter Text

The fourth month’s dual cultivation was as useless as the first three.

Wei WuXian packed up his belongings and returned to Yunmeng. 

Lan WangJi was forbidden to follow.

“You are needed here, Didi,” Lan XiChen pleaded. “Your duties are to this Sect. You can continue to assist in his healing with Wen Daifu, but….”

“I understand,” Lan WangJi acknowledged.

Six more months passed before something changed: Lan WangJi yelped when Wei WuXian shoved what little qi he possessed into his friend’s body. It stung, much like a branch whipping into one’s chest. 

Wei Qing nodded happily until she took Wei WuXian’s wrist to see his progress.

They had failed again.

Wei WuXian sent letters the following month declining any more sessions. Lan WangJi read his letter a dozen times, not comprehending any of the words. Or, rather, not wanting to comprehend any of the words. 

You can’t give up now. I’ve been hurting you month after month, making you hide away in your head for days on end. And you give up the first time you cause me a small sting? It means what we’ve been doing is working! I accepted that dual cultivating would hurt me, too. I will not allow you to decide my pain is not worth you gaining a Core.

The Phoenix Hunt was to be an annual event. Lan WangJi reluctantly accepted the invitation. Wei WuXian would be there; he apparently spent all of his free time in Koi Tower with Jin Xiao Furen and the baby. 

Lan WangJi hated Koi Tower. Between the drunken buffoons posturing and strutting and the ever present gold glittering, he was developing a massive headache. “I don’t drink,” he reminded the idiot currently shoving a wine cup in his face at the evening banquet. He had spent most of the Hunt searching for Wei Ying only to find out the other man had spent the entire Hunt in the observation towers with Jin Xiao Furen.

“You’re being rude!” yelled the idiot. “I offered you a toast, hiccup! You must drink. Polite. You Lan are supposed to be polite!” 

At least that’s what Lan WangJi thought the idiot was saying. He was slurring his words pretty heavily, so maybe…. 

Then a man in dingy white stood on the dais before Jin GuangShan and held up a small silver box with both hands. “I have the Yin Tiger Seal!”

Lan WangJi’s eyes riveted on the item. Wei Ying’s box that he put his Seal in last year. How did this person get it? He recognized the cultivator: Su She. We deactivated his token when he betrayed the Sect. We banned him from the grounds even before he started his own clan. So how did he get it? He wanted to ask his brother, but didn’t want to call too much attention to their Sect. 

“You found my Yin Tiger Seal?” Wei WuXian pushed his way up to the dais. “Excellent! I’ll take it, then.”

“Not so fast,” Jin GuangShan snatched the box from Su MinShan. “We should see if the Seal is in the box first, right?”

“Sure.” Wei WuXian grinned. But even from where Lan WangJi was sitting, it wasn’t a ‘pleased’ grin. It was a ‘you’re not getting away with this’ grin. “Where did you find it?” he asked Su MinShan politely. Wei Ying has truly grown up. He’s learned patience when faced with an obvious theft? 

“A friend of mine found it and gave it to me,” the clan leader hedged. The man was a traitor to the GusuLan, but not a complete idiot. He wouldn’t easily admit to stealing anything from Lan XiChen’s rooms. 

Jin GuanShan was turning the box in his hands, prying at the edges, shaking it. “Need help?” Wei WuXian plopped down on one of the dais steps and blew his bangs from his face. 

“No.”

“Oh. Alright.” He turned to Su MinShan. “Do you know how to open the box? I mean… how do you know my Tiger Seal is in there? I’m pretty good at recognizing resentful energy signs, especially my Seal, and I don’t sense anything.”

Of course you won’t. Lan WangJi wanted to snort. You ensured no yin energy would leak. And you ensured that no one but yourself would be able to open it. Or maybe you can sense your Seal and are just brazenly lying about it. None of us will be able to. 

Jin GuangYao sidled up to the dais. “Wei Gongzi…. Do you recognize this box? Is it yours?”

“Never seen it in my life,” Wei WuXian lied. 

Jiang WanYin strode up to the dais, Zidian flashing purple on his hand. “If that box does contain the Yin Tiger Seal, you need to hand it to my Head Disciple. It’s his property.”

Jin GuangYao bowed. “The item inside may be the Yin Tiger Seal. Wei Gongzi admits it’s not his box. Therefore, until we’re able to open it and verify its contents, it belongs to Su ZongZhu, doesn't it?”

“No,” Lan XiChen stated firmly from his seat. “The box is mine. It was in my bedroom when I left to attend the Hunt. How Su ZongZhu received it needs to be explained clearly.”

“You have proof the box is yours?” Jin GuangShan covered as much of the item as his hands could. 

“There is a dent on one of the corners from where I accidentally dropped it while cleaning last month. One side of the box is inscribed with the Lan clouds pattern. The other five sides are plain.

“Su ZongZhu, I must insist upon knowing how you came to possess something that a few days ago was in my room.”

“It was a gift,” the clan leader puffed up his chest and tried to look stern. Compared with the serenity the Lan sect leader exuded naturally, he merely looked sullen. 

Nie MingJue stood up from his seat across the Hall from the Lan. “I have seen Lan ZongZhu’s box. I will verify if this is the same item.” He strode across to the dais and held out one huge hand to the Jin sect leader. “Please.” Lan WangJi could see Jin GuangShan’s eyes flashing with fury even as he handed the thing to the Nie sect leader. He turned it around a few times, then “Dent.” He pointed to one corner. “Clouds.” He pointed to one of the sides. “Su MinShan. Who gave you this? And who informed you that it contained the Yin Tiger Seal?”

Surprisingly, Su MinShan’s nervous glance went from Nie MingJue to Jin GuangShan, then Jin GuangYao, then back to Jin GuangShan. “I don’t remember.”

Wei WuXian laughed, a genuine laugh, unlike his earlier smiles. “My memory for people is horrid, but even I remember the names of my friends! Come now… tell us the truth. Which friend gave it to you? I’m sure you’re embarrassed knowing one of your friends is a thief. However, I’m sure Lan ZongZhu will appreciate knowing who felt comfortable breaking into his home and stealing his stuff. Better to say who it is so the thief can be apprehended and punished, yes?”

“Punish the thief?” Su MinShan spat onto the dais step at Wei WuXian’s feet. “We would be better to punish you! You were asked last year where your Yin Tiger Seal was and you lied! My friend knows exactly what you did! You kept it in your pocket until you purchased this box in Gusu City. You then laid all sorts of protection and sealing spells on this box, put the Seal inside, and gave it to Lan ZongZhu for safekeeping.”

Jin GuangShan shifted on his throne. “Wei Gongzi, you kept the Seal on your person? I suppose that’s why my deranged nephew was unable to find it. I second Su ZongZhu in recommending you be punished. Lying to sect leaders should not be permitted. 

”Perhaps we should keep this box as your punishment. You lied about the Yin Tiger Seal, so now you can’t have it.”

Lan WangJi looked to his friend to see if he was going to retain his temper or lash out at his accusers. He could see Wei WuXian’s cheek muscles clenching, but his lips stayed shut. A quick glance at his brother and Jiang WanYin explained the silence, perhaps. The Jiang sect leader was looking with pleading eyes at XiChen. Lan XiChen looked back at his brother and nodded; he had cast the silence spell over Wei WuXian. 

Lan XiChen walked stately to the dais and took the small, silver box from the Nie Sect leader. “It may be that Wei Gongzi lied about not having his Seal that time. Or perhaps he found it afterwards. Regardless, LanlingJin and MolingSu have no claim over Wei Gongzi, nor his Seal; it is not for them to decide whether or not Wei WuXian will be punished. 

“What is up for me to decide is: what punishment to give to the thief who stole this from my room. Su MinShan… you will tell me the name of the person who gave you this item or I will be forced to conclude that you are the thief.”

“I didn’t steal anything!” Su MinShan squealed, and looked again at the Jin sect leader and his bastard son. 

Zidian crackled and snapped out  to wrap around the clan leader’s waist. “Why do you look at them for help?” Jiang WanYin snarled. “You have slandered my Head Disciple and attempted to keep Lan ZongZhu’s stolen item from him! I should whip you ten times for your slander alone!”

Jin GuangYao glided across the floor to lay a hand on the Jiang Sect leader’s arm. “Be patient, Jiang ZongZhu. Please. Lan ZongZhu has his belonging back; there is no need for violence. No one has been harmed. Let’s keep it that way?”

“No one has been harmed?” Jiang WanYin yanked Zidian tighter, causing Su MinShan to yell in real pain this time. “This man called my Head Disciple a liar in front of everyone here, and you say ‘no one has been harmed’? My Head Disciple’s name and reputation have been damaged. My sect’s reputation has been damaged. And this man refuses, still , to name the thief? Nor has he apologized! Not even a fake apology that he doesn’t mean!”

Chapter Text

“LianFang-Zun!” Su MinShan screamed as Zidian tightened yet again. “LianFang-Zun gave me the box and told me what to say!”

“A’Yao?” Lan XiChen’s disbelief was quite clear on his paling face. 

Lan WangJi closed his eyes, remembering that Jin GuangYao had accompanied them from Cloud Recesses to Koi Tower. Jin GuangYao… who held a token to access Cloud Recesses as he pleased. Who was allowed free access to the Hanshi. Who must have returned to the Hanshi to take the box before they all left for the Hunt?

Jin GuangYao who had murdered Jin ZiXun for his part in the Wen hunt and destruction of the rooms in Lotus Pier. 

Jin GuangYao, whom no one was defending. Not his father. Not his half-brother, who had stayed silent this entire time. Not the third member of their triumvirate. 

“It’s not true, Er’Ge,” Jin GuangYao begged. “I had nothing to do with this. I didn’t steal anything. I never told Su MinShan to claim the Yin Tiger Seal was in that box! How could I know what’s in it?”

Lan XiChen opened the box and handed it over. “There’s nothing in here,” he sighed. “Check all you want. It’s just an empty, pretty box.”

Lan WangJi kept his face as still as possible. How? Then he realized. Wei Ying must have made it so XiongZhang can open the box. But not so that it will show that the Seal is hidden inside. Clever man. He was feeling extraordinarily proud of his friend. He kept the amusement from his features as the box was handed to each of the sect leaders near the dais to confirm that yes, the box was completely empty. There was no hidden qiankun pocket, no demonic energy emanating from it, no spiritual energy, no indication that it had ever been spelled shut except for a trace of being spelled so only Lan XiChen could open it. 

Wei WuXian opened his mouth, perhaps intending to comment. Lan WangJi swiftly cast the silencing spell. You are being exonerated here. Let Jiang ZongZhu and XiongZhang speak for you. Words from a sect leader to another sect leader will have greater impact than from a Head Disciple who cultivates the demonic path ever will. They’ll just turn on you. Make you the focus of the discussion again instead of Jin GuangYao and Su MinShan. Wei WuXian glared at Lan XiChen, who didn’t notice. So he turned his glare on Lan WangJi, who gave a minuscule shrug in return. It would be best if I could take you out of the Hall. They’d have a harder time trying to pin this on you if you’re not even here. 

He’d stopped paying attention to exactly what was being said. Jin GuangYao was still protesting his innocence. Su ZongZhu was repeating his statement about merely being a messenger. Jiang ZongZhu was obviously furious; Zidian was sparking, making the clan leader yelp in pain every few breaths. It would have been funny if this were a play. Farcical. This was reality, and the crowd was not laughing.

Lan WangJi guessed that unless Jin GuangShan immediately started protecting his son, Jin GuangYao would be stripped of his titles and position in Koi Tower and banished. Being executed seemed a bit harsh of a punishment. Perhaps he’d lose a hand? Or be branded as a thief? He might even have his Core permanently sealed…. He could not imagine the Jin sect leader simply permitting his bastard son making such mistakes. First, being caught murdering Jin ZiXun and now being credibly accused of theft. From a fellow sect leader, no less. Both actions were most likely done at the order of Jin GuangShan, or at least with his blessing; the man was overly interested in getting his gilded hands on that Seal, after all. 

Jiang WanYin suddenly jerked his fist, retracting Zidian, then struck out again. This time Zidian curled around Su MinShan’s right elbow. There was another jerk and Su MinShan screamed. “You knowingly accepted stolen goods, and then smeared my Head Disciple’s and my sect’s reputation. You declined to offer even a reluctant apology for your actions, instead pushing the blame onto your co-conspirator. I accept the loss of your sword hand as reparations.” Now Lan WangJi could see the clan leader cradling the stump of his arm to his chest. 

More fast talking. This time from Jin GuangShan, attempting to absolve himself of any attachment to Jin GuangYao around this issue. As if the son would steal from another sect leader without his father’s permission or order. The son would absolutely spy on Wei Ying, with or without his father’s orders…. 

So who was the spy in Cloud Recesses? Someone followed Wei WuXian around? Was able to get close enough to the Weifengshi to overhear Wei Ying talking to himself? Or to see him placing the spells on the box? Place the Yin Tiger Seal inside? Who among the Lan, and it had to be a Lan, was close enough to Wei Ying to get away with it? 

It took a few moments for him to figure it out. Wei Ying has a manservant who cleans his house. Is he the spy? Even if Wei Ying didn’t say anything in the man’s presence, even leaving his notes around, as he did since he was quite messy on his good days and an absolute slob on his normal ones…. The servant could even have taken a paper or two, found a way to copy them, and then returned the originals without Wei Ying even noticing their absence. He could then have sent the copies to Koi Tower. 

Or not even had to make copies at all…. Jin GuangYao visited Lan XiChen at least once a month, usually three or four times a month. It wouldn’t be hard for the manservant to spend a few minutes with the Jin…. Jin GuangYao was said to have the ability to read something once and be able to perfectly recall it even years later. 

It was all speculation at this point. He’d need to discuss this more thoroughly with his brother and with Wei Ying. They would have additional information to add to his suppositions. 

A loud thunk and yet another scream interrupted his musings. Jin GuangYao was kneeling on the floor, holding a bloody stump of his own. Nie MingJue loomed over him, Baxia dripping blood. “The punishment for thievery is to lose a hand. Be thankful I didn’t take your life.”

Lan XiChen dropped to his knees, “A’Yao…. Let me help you.” The wounded man shuffled backwards. “Da Ge,” Lan XiChen chastised. “You didn’t have to do that. He is our sworn brother.”

Nie MingJie wiped his bloody saber with the bottom of one of his skirt panels. “It is because he is our sworn brother that I had to do it. He stole from you, Er Di. Then he made up a story about how it contained the Yin Tiger Seal and had Su MinShan announce it to everyone here. For what purpose? For what end? To merely discredit young Wei WuXian? To discredit the entire YunmengJiang sect? He won’t say. He won’t admit to anything.”

“A lack of confession is not an admission of guilt,” Lan XiChen retorted.

“Exactly,” Jin GuangShan agreed. “Nie MingJue! You have caused irreparable harm to my disciple and my sect. I demand compensation.”

Nie MingJue stared down at the Jin sect leader. “A disciple is he? Just a disciple? Not your son?” He reached into his lapel pocket, pulled out a few coppers, and threw them at the sect leader. “Here. The price of a hand from a mere disciple.” He whirled around to face his own disciples still sitting at their places in the Hall. “I’m leaving. This place stinks of corruption and rot.”

Lan WangJi turned his attention back to where Wei WuXian should be; he was gone.

Chapter Text

Wei WuXian stumbled upon landing in his bedroom at Lotus Pier. Teleportation was difficult enough when one was cultivating with spiritual energy. He had wrangled out a talisman that relied on resentful energy, but it wasn’t perfected yet. The distance from Koi Tower to Lotus Pier was further than any previous attempt. 

He was supposed to feel uncomfortable once again relying on resentful energy. After what he had done to Lan WangJi in their last session? I won’t hurt you again, Lan Zhan. I will live without a Core rather than rely on causing you pain to gain one again. It had only been a small hurt, but…. If dual cultivation worked? If he was able to grow a Core again? How could he be so selfish? A Core wasn’t worth putting his friend through agony. Wei WuXian completely ignored the little voice in his head that reminded him that Lan Zhan knew he was going to be in pain if they were successful and decided to do it anyway. Sometimes Lan Zhan doesn’t know what he wants. For evidence, see every time we’ve kissed. How can he want to kiss me? I’m a man! He’s a man! Yes, some men like to fool around with other men. Lan Zhan? If he was inclined like that, why would he pick me? Why not someone like…. Here he was stumped. He couldn’t think of a single person who was actually good enough to be Lan Zhan’s partner. Of course, Lan Zhan’s partner would have to be handsome and smart and a good cultivator. He probably didn’t need to find a rich partner, but someone who could bring political alliances would be a must. He certainly shouldn’t be looking at a demonic cultivator who cheerfully lied about anything he felt like. 

It made perfect sense for Wei Ying to want Lan Zhan; the man was pretty much the definition of male perfection. Both with clothes on and without. Wei WuXian firmly discarded the memories of their times being physical together, swished his skirts back into place, and left his room. 

He’d just upset the leader of the LanlingJin. Well, not necessarily he, himself, had upset the sect leader. He just hadn’t played along.  And three other sect leaders had interceded on his behalf. That stupid Seal. I should destroy it before the Jin come looking for it again. The Seal itself was safely hidden in yet another box spelled to contain resentful energy and stored in the vault in the water below his room. 

No Jin was ever going to find it. Not even Jiang Cheng or ShiJie knew the vault even existed. 

A few sichen later, Jiang WanYin and a few non-Jiang flew in. “Wei WuXian!” the sect leader yelled. “What the fuck have you done this time?”

Wei WuXian shrugged in the torch light. He thought about suggesting that they move into a room, to make less noise, and thought better of it. Jiang Cheng might be less loud if we stay out here in the middle of the family housing section. “Probably not everything I’m accused of,” he offered. “Most of it, maybe. Some of it, absolutely.”

Jiang WanYin was not amused. “Who the fuck do you think you are? My parent? Who the fuck are you to make decisions about my life?”

Jiang YanLi stepped in between the two men as Jiang WanYin was reaching out to choke his disciple. “A’Cheng. Calm down. He had a good reason, I’m sure.”

“Good reason?” Jiang WanYin glared at his sister. “What reason could he possibly have to make that decision for me? I’m going to kill you, Wei WuXian. I’m going to break your legs into tiny pieces and then murder you!”

“What decision did I make?” Wei WuXian honestly wasn’t sure. He’d made so many that might send Jiang Cheng into a rage, both good and bad, over the last few years.

“Where is BaoShan SanRen’s mountain? Tell me, right now, right here. No excuses.”

“In Yilling,” Wei WuXian recited mechanically. He forced himself to not look at Lan WangJi, even though he wanted to scream at the man. You told? I trusted you with my deepest secret. 

“Yiling.” Jiang WanYin spat on the ground. “There are a lot of mountains in Yiling. I’m supposed to believe that you remembered the exact one? You reminded us all back in Koi Tower that your memory is bad. You can hardly remember what you ate for breakfast and I’m supposed to be stupid enough to believe that you remembered the exact mountain your mother told you about when you were, what, three? You remembered something so trivial for fourteen or so years? And yet, you never bothered to try to find her? 

“I’ll admit,” the sect leader breathed heavily, “I’ll admit I was stupid enough to believe you. I wanted to believe you. I still want to believe you.”

“Then believe me,” Wei WuXian ordered. “There was no use trying to find the immortal’s mountain again. She thought you were me. If I showed up? Obviously one of us was lying. It’s better to just let her live her own life and us live ours.”

Jiang YanLi sighed. “A’Xian. You can stop lying about BaoShan SanRen. We all know you made it up. Not that she was your mother’s grandmaster, but that she was able to give A’Cheng his new Core. We know what you did.”

“What did I do?” Wei WuXian brazened it out. How could you treat me like this, Lan Zhan. How could you just tell them my secrets?

“You took A’Cheng to a random mountain, lied to him about what it was and who would meet him on it. You and Wen Daifu…. She cut out your Core and implanted it into A’Cheng.” Jiang YanLi was crying, snuggling her baby tighter and tighter as the words spilled from her mouth, until Jin Ling started crying, too. 

“Nie ZongZhu and Lan ZongZhu have gone to Gusu to ask Wen Daifu and her brother to attend us here. When Wen Daifu arrives, she’ll reverse what she did,” Jiang WanYin stated. “You had no right to do what you did. You can have your damn Core back. I don’t want it.”

Wei WuXian could feel his elder-brotherly instincts rising. “You need it. You can’t be a sect leader without a Core. I’ve been doing just fine without mine.”

“Dual cultivate with each other,” Lan WangJi insisted. “Wen Daifu says that will be more effective than dual cultivating with me.”

“Dual cultivate?” Jiang WanYin yelled. “You want me to…? Oh. That’s right. You just…” he started blushing as his voice rose in pitch. “You just touch knees.” 

Wei WuXian glared at his friend. “I refuse.” He walked away from his sect leader, his sister and her family, and everyone else who had been witness to his humiliation. 

“I did not tell them, Wei Ying.” Lan WangJi spoke up as they walked towards Wei WuXian’s room. “Before we left to come here, they had started to talk about your Core and your bad memory, and Wen Daifu…. They put the pieces together. I said nothing.”

“You could have steered them in a different direction,” Wei WuXian snapped.

“You would have me lie? I kept your secret even though I believed Jiang ZongZhu should know what you did. But now that it’s out? You can….”

“I can’t, Lan Zhan.” Wei WuXian sighed and blew at his bangs angrily. “I can’t dual cultivate with him. Or you. I will not deliberately cause you pain.”

“Liar,” Lan WangJi accused. “You deliberately caused me pain by stopping the treatment.”

“Physical pain, Lan Zhan,” Wei WuXian amended his argument. “I can’t.”

Lan WangJi grabbed Wei WuXian and shoved him up against a building. “You can’t? Do you think it’s easy for me to go to Wen Daifu’s office each month? Do you think it’s easy for me to shove everything that is me into you in the hope, the slightest of hope, that this time it will take? Knowing that I’m going to put you in agony for days ? Do you know how much I rejoiced feeling you hurting me back? It meant it was working! All of your effort wasn’t in vain.”

“I can take the pain!”

“So can I!” Lan WangJi yelled back. In a more reasonable tone, he added, “So can Jiang WanYin. We are adults capable of making decisions for ourselves.”

“And I’m making the decision for myself,” Wei WuXian huffed and relaxed into the hold and the wood behind his back. It was weird; he had Lan Zhan’s arm pressing against his chest, which should be humiliating, but instead felt… satisfying. Somehow. Freeing, perhaps… when it should feel confining. It was dark, long past midnight now… there was no sound except for them breathing, and the gentle slurping of lake water rippling against the pilings. “Lan Zhan….” He was all of a sudden bone-deep tired. “Can we sleep now? Argue in the morning?”

“Mmm,” sounded like an agreement.

“Did you get assigned a room?”

“Mmm,” sounded like a ‘no’.

“You can share my room. If you want.” He felt his cheeks getting hotter, which was ridiculous. They'd slept in the same bed many nights. Seen each other naked once. 

“Mmm,” sounded like a promise.

Apparently the promise was that as soon as the door was shut, Wei WuXian found himself once again being pressed up against a wall. “Can I kiss you?”

His own response was limited to ‘mmm’, as Lan Zhan hadn’t waited for an answer. It was hard and hot and wet. Teeth scraping against teeth. Lips crashing into each other, pressing hard enough to feel the imprint of teeth behind them. One of Lan Zhan’s hands fisted in Wei Ying’s hair and tugged down, pulling the younger one’s head back, opening his neck to be mouthed at. He felt his lapels being rudely shoved away, only for Lan Zhan to dip his head even lower to mouth over Wei Ying’s heart. 

Abrupt pain/pleasure shot through his body, emanating from that spot. “Lan Zhan! What the Hell are you doing?”

Lan Zhan’s head lifted from the bruised area, “Marking you,” then resettled on the other side and proceeded to again suck a bruise onto the fair skin.

Wei Ying wanted to complain, wanted to push his friend away, and at the same time, he wanted to wrap his legs around Lan Zhan’s waist. It made no sense. “How can this hurt and feel good at the same time? Shouldn’t it be one or the other?”

Lan Zhan stood up and nipped at Wei Ying’s mouth. “Didn’t hurt me. Just felt good.”

Wei Ying’s mouth dropped open in shock. “Was that meant to be a joke? A tease? What did you do to me anyway?” He shimmied out from between his friend and the wall to peer at his reflection in the small mirror. “Hey. You did mark me. Matching bruises. Where did you learn to do that?” He whirled, forcing an accusatory face: “No. Who did you learn to do that with?”

“Books.”

“You learned how to make bruises on my skin by reading books?”

“Wei Ying should read more,” Lan Zhan smirked.

“And you call me shameless,” Wei Ying muttered and turned back to look at the dark purple marks on his chest. He pressed on one and hissed as it complained. He wanted to say they looked horrible; he actually liked it. Liked seeing Lan Zhan’s mark on his skin. He’d be carrying evidence of Lan Zhan’s interest for days…. Their own little secret. He could pretend it meant more than a simple… something. Representation of lust or something. He could pretend that it meant…. Wei WuXian shied away from those thoughts.

Chapter Text

In the morning, the two met up with the others, now including the Wen siblings and the Lan and Nie sect leaders, in Jiang WanYin’s office. Jin ZiXuan stood behind his wife and held her waist as she held their baby. “We can assume that anything said outside this room will be reported to my father before the day is out. By now, he will know that Wei GongZi does not have a Core. We need to act accordingly.”

“First step, then, is for me to dual cultivate with Wei WuXian to get him a Core, then.” Jiang WanYin said, without turning red. “Wen Daifu said a reverse transplant will not work.”

Nie HuaiSang was not as shameless as the sect leader. Face bright red, he asked,“Jiang ZongZhu… the rumors that you share the same father are false, right?”

Wei WuXian glared at his short friend. “Don’t insult my parents. I’m not dual cultivating with anyone. I haven’t had a Core in years and I don't need one now.”

Nie MingJue shook his head. “I’m sure Jin ZongZhu is whipping up those who stayed at Koi Tower last night into thinking of you as evil. You use yin energy to cultivate, you refuse to allow your superiors access to the Yin Tiger Seal, you lied to everyone multiple times, and now you don’t have a Core. The three of us,” he pointed to Jiang WanYin and Lan XiChen, “publically supported you last night. My best guess is that he’ll claim we’re either in league with you or are in thrall to you.”

“Under your spell, would suit his purposes better,” Jin ZiXuan added. “A deranged demonic cultivator who used the YinTiger Seal to enslave three of the great sect’s leaders?”

A translucent bird flew through the walls to land on Nie HuaiSang’s outstretched arm, as if it were a real bird. “Not exactly slaves, Jin Gongzi,” he stated. “Puppets. Jin GuangShan has told everyone that Wei Xiong has used the Seal in a more nefarious manner than anything Wen RuoHan ever did. Wen RuoHan created mindless puppets; he says Wei Xiong has used the Seal to create ones that appear to be normal. But we’re all under his command. Akin to if we had ingested a gu.”

Jiang WanYin slammed his fist on his table. “All the more reason to get you that Core. A puppet?”

Lan XiChen sighed. “It makes it easier to attack us. Killing a puppet was seen as a mercy during the war.”

“He’s also named himself Xiandu,” Nie HuaiSang added softly. 

“Fuck.” Wei WuXian wasn’t exactly sure how many people uttered the expletive. 

Wen Qing straightened her back. “Wei WuXian must get a Core, then. No, you don’t get a choice anymore,” she uttered over Wei WuXian’s opened mouth and expected objections. “Over the last year, I’ve read almost every book regarding Core formation and how to heal it due to various damages. Dual cultivation is the only method we have. We’ve tried the traditional method. We can try that with Jiang ZongZhu.”

“We?” Wei WuXian muttered under his breath.

“If the traditional method doesn’t work, there is the more well known form. I have discussed sexual dual cultivation with several rogue cultivators who were interested in learning about it.”

“No. Absolutely not,” Wei WuXian insisted.

“If you would prefer to have sex with someone close to you, if you need the intimacy of the mind as well as the intimacy of the body, that is also an option.”

Wei WuXian stood up. “Wen Daifu, I appreciate your efforts on my behalf. I am not having sex just to get a Core!” He deliberately forced himself to not look at Lan WangJi. It was humiliating enough having a dozen people listening to a discussion about his body without seeing how that discussion impacted the man who had kissed him witless the night before. 

“If you won’t have sex, then the final option is called Avalanche.”

Wei WuXian practically ran from Jiang WanYing’s office. How embarrassing. I’ve been Coreless for years. I didn’t need one to help win the war and I don’t need one now. No one else agreed with him. Puppets! Ha! I don’t even know how to make a gu. Force people to do my bidding? I hope there was a spy in that room; they’d see right through that gu nonsense. No one was doing my bidding!

He found a secluded spot to hide in: a pagoda sitting over a small pond. He slumped to the ground, sitting on the edge, feet kicking at the pilings holding the building off the water.  “Gugu says to stay away from the edge of the walkways or I’ll fall in and no one will see me and I’ll drown and get dead. I don’t want to be dead. You have to lie very still and hold your breath for days and days and years and they stick you in a hole and cover you up with dirt and I don’t like getting dirt in my face and I don’t like having to lie still for days and days. It looks pretty boring. And people cry a lot and I don’t like it when people cry. Unless it’s because they fell down and hurt themselves ‘cause then you need to cry to get the pain to go away. I’m Wen Yuan, what's your name?”

Wei WuXian spun around and blinked at the kid he’d completely overlooked in his quest to find a place away from his antagonizers. “Wei Ying, courtesy Wei WuXian,” his mouth answered before his brain finished processing the run-on sentences. “Your gugu is a wise woman. If I fall in here, I’m tall enough to stand with my head out of the water and there are no rocks to hit my head on. So, I’ll just get very wet, not dead.”

“Oh,” the child blinked back. “I can’t wait till I’m tall like you. Do you like butterflies? Shushu bought this for me.” He held up a grass butterfly and waved it around like it was flying. “Shushu says I can paint it pretty colors when we get home but first I have to behave and be good. Popo has a bad cough so Gugu had to bring me with her so Popo can get better. Popo says I give the best hugs to help her feel better, but Gugu says hugs don’t cure coughs. And little boys can catch bad coughs and get sick, too, so I have to come with her so we can all stay healthy and Popo can get better without worrying about me. I wonder if she’s going to get dead like my baba and mama and meimei did. I’ve been waiting for them to stop being dead for a long time. How long do people have to stay dead before they can get out of the hole and be alive again?”

Wei WuXian’s chest pained him, listening to this rapid fire story. “I’m sorry, Wen Yuan, but once you’re dead, you have to stay that way.” 

The child shook his head wildly, disagreeing with that statement. “No. Popo says after you’re dead you get reborn and you get to live again.”

“Ah.” Wei WuXian scratched at his nose. “That’s true. I should have said, your body has to stay that way. Your soul gets to be free for a while. And then a woman is going to have a baby and the soul goes to live in the baby and gets born again. Sometimes the soul gets to be reborn right away and sometimes it has to wait for a long time.”

“Does it take a whole year?” Wen Yuan asked.

“Sometimes… sometimes maybe ten years. Or longer.”

Wen Yuan’s eyes opened wide. “That’s more years than I have.” He held up a hand, wiggling his fingers. “I have this many fingers now. A little while ago I had only this many,” he dropped down his thumb, “but then I had a birthday and I got to add my thumb.”

“Five years old? Wow!” Wei WuXian tried to sound excited. “That’s pretty old for a kid!” 

“How many fingers do you have?”

Wei WuXian laughed. “You and I together don’t have enough fingers. We’d have to add in some toes.”

“Wow, you’re old! Do you wanna play with my butterfly?”

Wei WuXian couldn’t stop laughing at the innocent insult. “That’s a really pretty butterfly.” 

“Do I have to call you Wei…” Wen Yuan’s forehead wrinkled as he tried to remember.

“You can call me XianGege.”

“XianGege!” Wen Yuan beamed, stood up, and plopped right into Wei WuXian’s lap. “If you move it like this,” he jerked the butterfly up and down, “it looks like the wings are really flapping like a real butterfly. You can try it?”

Wei WuXian gently took the toy and wiggled it around so it looked like it was flying. “You have a great toy, Wen Yuan.”

“You can call me A’Yuan. Mama called me YuanEr, but that makes me sad when Popo calls me that. I only want Mama to call me YuanEr. She makes me feel special when she says it.”

“A’Yuan,” Wei WuXian agreed and zoomed the butterfly around a bit more. “What colors are you going to paint it?”

“All sorts of colors. You smell really nice. Gugu and Shushu smell like sour medicine. Popo smells like meat buns. You smell like flowers. I like meat buns more than flowers. Shushu says when we go home if I’m a good boy I can have a practice sword and I can learn cultivation and reading and writing and numbers and math and music and someday I’ll get to learn to ride a pony and to swim. I think I just want to learn one of them at a time. I’m still little and that’s a lot of learning.”

Wei WuXian laughed again. “You don’t have to learn all of it at once. You can learn a little bit of each at one time.”

“That’s all right then.” Wen Yuan yawned and snuggled into the older one’s body. “Did you have to learn everything at once when you were five fingers?”

“No,” Wei WuXian tried to keep the memories at bay. At five, he’d been all alone, learning how to survive on scraps of food and the occasional kindness of strangers. “Mama and Baba taught me a bit, but then they had to go away. Jiang Shushu found me a few years later and that’s when I started to learn reading and swordplay and the rest.”

“Oh.” Wen Yuan yawned again. “I’m too big for naps. Naps are for babies and I’m five fingers already.”

“Of course you are,” Wei WuXian agreed softly. 

It was relaxing, having this small body curled up in his lap. A trusting child, and seemingly well behaved. An orphan holding an orphan. Twin boys who missed their parents. Who didn’t understand why they died. A boy who wanted to be a cultivator and a man who was no longer one. 

Wen Yuan…. If Jin GuangShan’s nephew had had his way, this poor child would probably already be bat food. Jin GuangShan naming himself Xiandu? How well can I protect them without a Core? The Yin Tiger Seal will help me keep them alive but at what cost? Will I split the jianghe in half? Will I be the cause of yet another war? How many will die for my arrogance? 

Having sex with a stranger was not going to happen. Sex with Lan WangJi? Sure, they’d been intimate with each other. There was a world of difference between fooling around giving someone an orgasm with your hand and having sex. 

Sex was for marriage. That’s what Jiang Shushu had always stated. Only crass men had mistresses or visited pleasure houses. Real men stayed true to their wives, even before they were married. It was the gentlemanly thing to do, especially if the gentleman wanted a chaste wife. He should honor her and remain chaste as well. Wei WuXian was pretty sure Lan Zhan held the same feelings towards sex and marriage. The Cloud Recesses were even more restrained in their behaviors than Lotus Pier; it was unlikely they taught sex without marriage was something to be desired. As previously determined, they were not going to be married, so…. 

It’s not like he even wanted to have sex with Lan Zhan. He wasn’t even sure how sex between them would work…. He was aware of how two men had sex, but…. How do they determine which one does what? Did they have to talk about it? How embarrassing. Or did one just… take charge and decide he was going to be… whichever? It didn’t matter because they were just having fun together. 

Weren’t they? That’s all this is, right? We like kissing each other, so we kiss. And we enjoy touching each other, so we do that, too. Did that, too. Once. If he was disappointed that the previous night’s kiss had not led to more fooling around, he firmly squashed that feeling down into the toe of his boot where he could barely feel it pressing against his foot. 

So…. He looked down at the sleeping child. I can’t disrespect my future wife so easily. I can’t let Jin GuangShan hurt the people I care about, either. That now includes you, little one. 

Chapter Text

Avalanche was aptly named. He was going to be subjected to an ever increasing amount of qi over the next few days. Every sichen he would dual cultivate with people of increasing core strength. And on the half sichen, he would be just a receiver to someone trying to dual cultivate with him. 

Wen Qing placed something in a brazier; it smelled sweet and sticky and slightly nauseating. “Breathe it in,” she instructed as he made a face. “You’re going to need it.” Whatever was in the smoke made him feel… not quite himself. He was aware that he was in pain and crying as qi was pushed into his body over and over again. He just didn’t care enough to worry about it. Nor did he care when his partners flinched or cried out after he shoved every bit of qi circulating through his meridians back into them. 

Lan WangJi was forced out of the room when the opium vapors became too much for him to handle. And his jealousy became too much. It was difficult watching a series of men and women parading into and out of the building designated as Wei WuXian’s infirmary room. It was difficult listening to Wei Ying giggling over nothing, crying in pain, gasping as more and more qi was forced into, and out of, his body. It was difficult knowing that Jin GuangShan was corrupting more and more of the smaller clans into believing Wei WuXian was a puppet master and not being able to do anything about it. 

It was difficult on the second evening, hearing the Nie cultivator, who was the current dual cultivation partner, yelling in pain as he was hit with Wei Ying’s qi. It wasn’t right that some random person should be the one receiving Wei Ying’s qi. It should be me. It should only be me. No one else is worthy of him. Of partnering with him. Of being close to him. 

“I refuse,” Jiang WanYin argued the third afternoon when informed that he would be a donor and not also a recipient. “I will dual cultivate with him.”

Wen Qing looked tired from two sleepless nights. “We need you in full health, Jiang ZongZhu. You were there this morning when Nie HuaiSang informed everyone that Jin GuangShan was going to be coming here to grab Wei WuXian and his amulet or start a war. We can’t afford to have you down even for a few hours.”

“But you’ll let him?” Jiang WanYin pointed a finger, shaking with anger, at Lan WangJi. “You’ll keep me healthy and allow one of our strongest cultivators to be laid out as we begin to battle?”

“Yes,” she answered through a yawn. “He’ll be fully recovered by the time talks devolve into actual fighting.” Lan WangJi finished her thought: I’ll be useless during the talks.

“I’m the reason he’s in this position in the first place,” Jiang WanYin grumbled.

“At least you admit it,” Lan WangJi snapped. He, too, was tired and grumpy.

“Admit it?” Jiang WanYin yelled. “You have no idea what you’re talking about HanGuang-Jun . Do you know how I lost my Core? Whatever story you’ve been told is not the truth.”

Lan WangJi snorted. “Then what is?”

Jiang WanYin’s fists clenched and Zidian sparked. “He was going to be captured. I saw them, the Wen. They were going to capture him. I knew they’d torture him and kill him. Wen Chao. He hated Wei WuXian the most. He’d make sure the torture was the worst anyone had ever… I couldn’t let that happen. He’s always been the better cultivator. Smarter, faster. People like him. He’d make a better sect leader. Even my mother knew that. I think that’s part of the reason she hated him so much. Not just that my father adored him or because of the rumors that he was my half brother. 

“After the Indoctrination Session, JieJie and I had talked about her marrying him if anything happened to me. He worships her and she loves him; it might not be the happiest of marriages, but it wouldn’t be the worst, either.

“I thought the Wen would just kill me. I didn’t expect to lose my Core first. I certainly didn’t expect to be rescued. Without a Core, I still thought he’d be the better choice for sect leader. Even if he didn’t marry JieJie…. Our people would pretend he was my father’s bastard child and elevate him to the position regardless. I was prepared to die, so he could rise. And then….”

Wen Qing sighed a yawn. “And then he found a way to give you his Core and lied to you about it.”

“Self sacrificing idiot,” Jiang WanYin ground out. 

“That doesn’t change that we need you functioning as a sect leader when the Jin arrive,” Wen Qing reminded him. “You’ll be a donor.”

Lan WangJi averted his gaze from the duo to look out over the lake. Self sacrificing idiots. Both of them. All either of them had to do to avert this whole mess was to talk to each other. How hard would it have been for Jiang WanYin to say ‘I lost my Core protecting you.’ How hard would it have been for Wei Ying to say ‘I found a way to get you a Core; I will give you mine.’ He conveniently ignored that there were a whole lot of things he continued to fail to mention to Wei Ying himself…. For one, how much he wanted… everything. How much he yearned to be able to…. How much he needed to touch, to taste. To take . To force Wei Ying to give, to yield, to submit….

It had felt exhilarating, pressing Wei Ying against the wall and kissing him. Knowing the younger man didn’t have the strength to resist. Wei Ying yielding was… so perfect…. It boded well for the rest of Lan Zhan’s fantasies… holding his lover down, pressing him into the bed, forcing him to accept what he was given….

He’d burned with jealousy as Jiang WanYin made his way to sit next to Wei Ying, who was giggling like a little child. “Jiang Cheng…. Is it you already?”

“Shut up,” the sect leader growled.

“I can’t very well shut down,” Wei Ying laughed and started hiccuping. He’d stopped laughing only when Jiang WanYin began. “Oh, fuck that hurts!” he’d cried, tears streaming down his cheeks. “Stop, ChengCheng. I can’t… I can’t… Just stop already. Please….” 

It had taken all of Lan WangJi’s willpower to not push the Jiang sect leader away from Wei Ying. It was only a few moments before Jiang WanYin slumped, drained. Wei Ying was still keening in pain, cheeks and robes wet with tears, as Wen Qing carefully took his wrist to check his dantians. 

“Wei WuXian… do you feel it?” she breathed.

“Feel what?” he hiccuped, this time from crying not laughing..

“You did it.”

“We did?” Jiang WanYin grabbed the other wrist and closed his eyes in concentration. “Wei WuXian… you fucker. Was this all it took? You spent all those months dual cultivating with HanGuang-Jun when you could have done it with me? And been cured? You…” he threw out a stream of expletives that, for some reason, set Wei Ying to laughing again.

“Ah, ChengCheng… how could I dual cultivate with you? You were ready to kill Wen Daifu and Lan Zhan when you found out I was doing it with them.”

“If you had explained it the proper way, it would have been different. But, no, you have to start your explanations in the middle and leave out all the important pieces.”

Wen Qing gave Jiang WanYin a measured look. “You can leave now, to rest, Jiang ZongZhu. Wei WuXian needs to rest, too, before the last session.”

“You’re still going to have him dual cultivate with Lan WangJi?” Jiang WanYin’s look at the man in white was ugly. “The fucker finally has a Core again, and you want him to potentially lose it?”

“He won’t,” she insisted and rose to her feet. “Wei Gongzi… rest. One more session and this will all be over.”

“Over,” Wei WuXian flopped down to lay sprawled on his bed. “That’s good.” 

Chapter Text

Lan WangJi took Jiang WanYin’s place once the others had left. The smoke was making his head feel fuzzy again…. “Wei Ying….” came out like a prayer. Like he was the answer to a prayer. 

He was the answer to every prayer, wasn’t he? “Wei Ying….”

“Lan Zhan.’ Wei Ying slid his hand into the other’s. “Are you here to dual cultivate with me?”

“Soon.”

“Good.” Wei Ying’s eyes were red, so like when he was cultivating with yin energy and yet… completely different at the same time. “No. Not good. Hurting the others. Can’t hurt you.”

“I want you to,” Lan Zhan gripped his hand, hard. “It’s not supposed to be as painful when both cultivators have a Core. You won’t hurt me that much.”

“That’s good,” Wei Ying sighed and closed his eyes. “So tired.” He smiled and started giggling again. “Will you stay with me?”

“Of course.” Lan WangJi gathered up enough mental strength to spell the smoke into a ball and disperse it out a window. “I will stay with you for as long as you need.”

The smile was sad. “You shouldn’t make such promises. It hurts too much when we have to break them. I like the idea though….” He sighed and burrowed a bit into the bedding. “Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if we could just… walk away from our responsibilities and….”

Wei Ying seemed to be asleep, his breathing even and deep. It hurts me, too, Wei Ying. I want… so much with you. He raised their joined hands and kissed Wei Ying’s. I hate being away from you. When this Jin nonsense is over, you need to come with me to Gusu…. Wen Qing said after you formed a Core again you would need to dual cultivate a few times that first year. I suppose you can do that with Jiang WanYin…. I don’t want you to. I want you to live in the Weifengshi again and teach archery and….  

He was lying, even to himself. I don’t want you to live in the Weifengshi again. I want you to move into the Jingshi with me. As my lover.

“Lan Zhan… such a cruel man you are,” Wei Ying’s voice sounded tired and teasing at the same time.

“Cruel?”

“You kissed my hand. Cruel, cruel man.” His lips curled into a smile, soft and happy. A tease, rather than a genuine insult. 

“I could kiss you elsewhere,” Lan Zhan offered, feeling his own lips curving slightly. 

“You could.” It was supposed to be a continuation of the tease. It didn’t sound like a tease. It sounded like a promise. Or a demand. Or begging.

Lan Zhan quietly spelled the door and windows locked. The last thing they needed was a well-intentioned Wen Qing or Jiang YanLi interrupting their kisses. The only way to comfortably kiss someone who was lying down, was to lie down himself…. Lan Zhan pushed sprawling limbs around to give himself space on the bed, even as Wei Ying tried to curl like a cat into his body. Finally they were aligned, more or less; the first kiss was as soft and lingering as the mists that creeped through the Cloud Recesses on cool spring mornings. The second kiss was more akin to nuzzling: breaths mingling, bodies realigning for more contact, more…. The third kiss was more, too, the first sparks of arousal making themselves known. Lips and hands and legs became more greedy, more insistent. 

“Lan Zhan… you know it’s only you, right?” Wei Ying tipped his head back to allow access to his neck. “I only want to do this with you.” His upper leg wrapped around Lan Zhan’s, pulling their lower halves even closer. Lan Zhan obliged the unspoken request by lowering his mouth to nip at his friend’s neck, careful to leave the skin smooth and blemish-free. Not that he wanted to leave the skin clear… and maybe with a Core, Wei Ying could handle being bitten? With the hand he wasn’t resting on, he tugged at Wei Ying’s collars, exposing the marks he’d left a few nights before. Marks that were, even as he looked at them, fading from a light green to yellow. “Are they still there?” Wei Ying tilted his head to see his chest.

“Fading,” Lan Zhan answered quietly before sucking a new bruise on the pale skin. “For me, too,” he added, referencing an earlier topic. “I only want to do this with you,” he clarified to questioning silver eyes, still hazy from the drug. 

“What a pair we make,” Wei Ying laughed softly and ran a hand over his friend’s cheek. “What do you think? Should we leave? Walk away from the sects and become rogue cultivators together? Roam the world ridding it of monsters as our sole responsibility?” His hand slid around to the back of Lan Zhan’s neck and pulled his unresisting head up for a lingering kiss. “I dreamed of that… back when we were kids and young and stupid about what being an adult meant. Before we grew up too fast from the war and familial expectations.” He sighed, heavily. “I miss him, me… who I was at fifteen and sixteen.”

Lan Zhan laid his head down on Wei Ying’s chest, enjoying the simplicity of feeling his lover’s chest rising and falling. His arms and hands spasmed, clutching the body in his grasp just a bit more tightly. “I don’t miss him,” he spoke quietly. “I liked the young, innocent, Wei Ying. I like the mature Wei Ying more. Especially when your innocence shines through your complexity.”

“You didn’t like me back then, Lan Zhan!” Wei Ying laughed. “I was such a pest to you.”

“I liked you very much, Wei Ying,” Lan Zhan confessed to his friend’s robes. “I regret not telling you back then. You were infuriating, of course, but at the same time…. You challenged me…. Emotionally, spiritually, martially. Made me want to be a better version of me. Or at least one who could converse with you.”

“Lan Zhan… you are the most eloquent man in the whole world. Even in your silences, you speak so articulately, if one only pays attention. I don’t mind, you know, that no one else tries to listen to your silences. It makes me feel like I’m someone special…. Special to you.”

Lan Zhan raised his head from its comfortable resting place to place a gentle kiss on his lover’s mouth. “I see you as my zhiji, Wei Ying. I did at sixteen and I will until we die.”

“So serious, Lan Zhan?” Wei Ying’s voice was teasing, but his silver eyes showed his appreciation for the sentiment. “And yet you didn’t name my song some variation of ‘zhiji’?”

Words jumbled in his mouth, got stuck behind his teeth, tangled his tongue into knots. WangXian. I named it after us. After the us I wanted before the world exploded in fire and death and I thought I lost you. 

I want you, Wei Ying. My zhiji. Mine. Be mine. 

Perhaps Wei WuXian understood what he was incapable of saying. Perhaps the drugs smoking up the room were too much. Perhaps there was something else at play. Whatever it was, Wei Ying pulled Lan Zhan’s head down for a hard, hot, wet, tongue tangling kiss. It felt natural to roll from lying almost on their sides to Wei Ying lying on his back and Lan Zhan lying on top, one leg threaded between Wei Ying’s. It felt natural to rest most of his upper body weight on one arm freeing the other hand to wend and weave its way around Wei Yings chest, lingering around, prodding, plucking at the small protrusions poking through the cloth, sliding down a warm side to grip a hip, and further down, hitching Wei Ying’s free leg up to wrap around his own hip. “My zhiji.” Being free to claim Wei Ying was energizing. Exhaustion from the previous days and nights melted away into arousal and need.

“My zhiji,” Wei Ying echoed. “My zhiji… shall we dual cultivate together?” His hips rolled up against Lan Zhan’s with a low moan. “Wen Daifu said dual cultivation was different when….”

Lan Zhan stilled. The idea of touching Wei Ying again, wringing pleasure out of him even as they shared their qi was… riveting. Exactly the opposite was the knowledge that they’d be caught if they did. “We can’t. I’m sorry.” He nearly gave in upon seeing his lover’s face flinch from rejection. “I want to, Wei Ying. I want to, so much…. I loved touching you. I loved you touching me. I loved seeing you like that. Wen Daifu… she’ll know. Won’t she? She’ll know that we… were intimate. Are you… prepared for others to know?”

Wei Ying visibly shrunk into the bedding. “You’re right. She’ll know. She knew after the hot pool that I had…. She assumed it was a solo act, though.”

“She won’t assume it’s a solo act now. She checks both of your and your partner’s wrists after you dual cultivate. She’d know that you and I….” He sighed and rested his head in the curve of Wei Ying’s neck. “Later,” he promised. 

A promise he hoped to keep. A promise he wanted to keep. 

A promise he feared might not be kept for a very long time. Jin GuangShan still needed to be dealt with. A war needed to be averted. The Yin Tiger Seal needed to be destroyed. He would return to the Cloud Recesses; Wei Ying would stay here in Lotus Pier. With Jiang WanYin willing to dual cultivate with his head disciple, there was no reason for Wei Ying to go live in the Weifengshi again. 

“Later,” Wei Ying whispered. “I’ll hold you to that promise, Zhiji.”

Dual cultivating with someone who had a Core, even the small one Wei WuXian possessed, was vastly different from dual cultivating with someone who was only able to push out qi stored in his meridians. 

Perhaps it was akin to being struck with a rainbow made of lightning: beautiful and wondrous and exquisite and fulfilling and so incredibly precious and painful . The both of them gasped for air, finding it difficult to breathe.

“Fuck, that hurts,” Wei WuXian stuttered out over a good twelve syllables. “Not nearly as painful as when we did it back in Wen Daifu’s place. I’m still alert, at least. Lan Zhan… are you alright?”

Lan WangJi nodded, unwilling to trust his voice to speak yet. He breathed in and out, heavily, for a few moments. “That was worse than when the Wen broke my leg. But gone much more quickly.” He placed his hand over his lower dantian, feeling his Core… “It worked. For me.”

Wei WuXian copied his friend’s movement and laughed like a small child getting his first taste of a sugary treat. “It worked, Lan Zhan.”

“Sleep, Zhiji,” Lan WangJi ordered. “It’s been a long three days.”

“Mmm. Promise me you’ll be here when I wake?”

“I promise.”

He awoke from an enforced sleep, still groggy from the drug he’d inhaled, feeling warm again. As he hadn’t felt in over a year. 

No…

As he hadn’t felt in several years.

Jiang YanLi smiled at him through her tears. “A’Xian… you did it.”

“It worked.” He could feel it still: a tiny ball of burning qi spinning in his abdomen. 

“It worked.”

Chapter Text

He sat in his own room, eating a meatless soup and trying not to whine about it, while Jiang YanLi sorted through his clothes. “You need something that says ‘powerful cultivator’ while at the same time says ‘not healthy enough to be challenged to a duel’,” she muttered. “Why are your robes all practical? Don’t you have anything… just for looking pretty?”

Wei WuXian swallowed his current mouthful. “I’m the head disciple of a sect. I’m supposed to be practical, not just pretty. What about those gauzy ones I wore to your pre-wedding banquet? Those sleeves are definitely not practical.”

“Yes!” She brightened. “That’s perfect. You looked very handsome in them, XianXian. They got you three marriage offers that night. I was expecting more, honestly…. Three is practically insulting given how handsome you looked.”

“What?” He choked on his next mouthful.

“Don’t worry. A’Cheng read through the offers and declined them all on your behalf. Not to say the offers weren’t good, because they were. For the sect, they were very good. It’s just that the women were not a good fit for you. You need a partner who is strong enough to stand up to your excessiveness.”

“I don’t have excessivenesses,” he grumbled.

“And…” Jiang YanLi pulled out the gauzy sleeved outfit, “And you need someone who adores you, of course. And be willing to be a parent to all the strays you’re going to collect.”

“Strays?”

“Yes.” She mock frowned at him. “Did you think you could hide that you coerced Wen Yuan into being enamored with you from us? His first sentence each morning is a request to visit XianGege. He asks, constantly, why am I to be called LiAyi if we’re about the same age and you are to be called XianGege. Why aren’t I LiJiejie or you XianShushu?”

Wei WuXian giggled. “All I did was play with a butterfly with him.” He put on his most innocent face. “Why are you LiAyi? You’re not old enough to be an Ayi.”

“I’m a mother. So I’m Ayi. You’re only three; he should call you Didi,” she retorted. “Wear this tonight. A’Cheng says to stay silent as much as possible. Try to look like someone recovering. Lan WangJi has been instructed to Silence you if necessary.” She sighed and fiddled with one of the sleeves. “A’Xuan says he and his mother have a plan to deal with Jin GuangShan once and for all. They won’t tell me what they’re planning…. It worries me.”

“You discussing my marriage worries me,” he retorted. “Can’t I just marry someone I like without,” he fluttered his chopsticks holding hand around, “all that arranged marriage, political mess?”

“All marriages are political, A’Xian,” Jiang Yanli smiled sadly. “Unless you have no family, no obligations to the people around you…. Even the fishmonger’s marriage is political. He needs a wife who understands how he makes a living. A wife whose family repairs boats is probably a better match than the daughter of a candy maker. I have my eyes on several candidates who would be good for you as well as YunmengJiang. Hopefully, you will like one of them.”

“Hopefully no one loses a hand tonight!” He quipped with an idiotic grin, trying to escape more talks of matrimony. 

“Not funny,” she snorted. “I will see you in a sichen, XianXian. Remember: speak as little as possible.”

He snorted himself as she let herself out of the room. “Speak as little as possible? Impossible. What else is a mouth good for except for talking?” Despite being alone, he colored thinking of what else his mouth had been doing earlier that day. 

Mouths, as it turned out, were quite good for things other than talking. Lan Zhan’s mouth was really, extremely good at things other than talking. Which made him start to wonder…. If Lan Zhan’s mouth felt that good on his face, mouth, hand, and so on…. Where else would it feel really good?

He had enough time to play that fantasy out to its natural conclusion before washing up and dressing in his extremely impractical robes. 

Lotus Hall was filled with gossiping people when he edged his way into it. “Wei Xiong,” Nie HusiSang grabbed his arm and dragged him into an almost secluded corner. “I heard the most fabulous news. You did it? You really healed your Core?”

Wei WuXian was confused as to why his friend would say ‘healed’ instead of some version of ‘regained’, but he played along. “Yes. It was a grueling few days, but… my Core is functioning again.”

“Excellent. I suppose you didn’t hear the news?” Nie HuaiSang was practically bristling with eagerness. “Su MinShan died yesterday. The official statement from Moling is that he committed suicide. Oddly enough, he died from stab wounds to the back.” He smirked. “It’s not completely impossible to neatly stab yourself in the kidneys a few times and then dispose of the weapon before you die without leaving a bloody trail to the weapon’s hiding place. Challenging, but not impossible. In unrelated news, Jin GuangYao has disappeared from Koi Tower. I hope he stays disappeared.”

Wei WuXian nodded his agreement. “You’re a good friend, Nie Xiong.” It didn’t really matter if Su MinShan was murdered by Jin GuangYao or someone else. Dead was dead. Apparently his clan didn’t care enough to avenge him, either. Or they knew exactly who the killer was, and didn’t want to set him off on a rampage.  

The other man fluttered his fan in embarrassment. “Me? What did I do? I didn’t do anything.”

Wei WuXian’s casual, “Of course not,” trailed off as his gaze locked on Lan WangJi. The older man was dressed in stark white, standing tall and strong and so handsome next to his older brother. Zhiji. His feet led him over to the pair without his conscious consent. “Lan ZongZhu, Lan ErGongzi,” he bowed. 

Lan XiChen smiled as he returned the bow. “It’s good to see you looking so much better than the last time we met. I am pleased to know that GusuLan played a part, however small, in assisting your healing.” He nodded knowingly at Suibian, gripped lightly in Wei WuXian’s right hand. 

“Thank you,” Wei WuXian bowed again. “It’s good to once again be able to carry Suibian. I look forward to the day when I have recovered sufficiently for us to have a friendly match.”

“I look forward to that as well,” the sect leader smiled. “Until that day, I offer my brother as a training partner. I know he missed sparring with you.”

“I’m afraid I’m not going to be capable of giving Lan ErGongzi a decent match for some time.” He let his eyes slide from the sect leader to the brother.

The brother… whose white outer robe had embroidered clouds sewn on in a pale, almost white, purple thread and was held together at the waist with a sash. A chiffon sash. An almost white purple sash. We match , Wei WuXian’s brain stated, far too calmly. He’s wearing the same color as me. My outer robes are made of the same material as his sash.

“Do you like WangJi’s outfit?” Lan XiChen smiled. “Jin XiaoFuren gifted it to him as a thank you for his assistance in healing your Core.”

“They’re very nice,” Wei WuXian spoke almost mechanically, his brain now screaming, He’s wearing the same color as me!  

He somehow found his way to his seat. And he must have eaten, as there were empty bowls on his table. He had no recollection of any of it. There had to have been toasts; in fact, one of the lesser clan leaders was making a toast (boast?) that somehow involved Jiang Cheng but was really just praising the speaker. Wei WuXian had no memory of drinking to any of the others. He wasn’t even the slightest bit intoxicated. He politely raised his cup and drank it down once the boaster stopped talking, only to realize his ‘wine’ was water. Explains why I’m not drunk at least. He stole a quick glance at Lan WangJi who was overtly looking back over his own water cup. Not shy at all, are you? Lan Zhan’s lips pursed slightly, and released. He just kissed me. In public. For everyone to see. Lan Zhan! His internal screaming would have startled the whole room if it was allowed to be audible. 

“Enough!” Jin GuangShan yelled as yet another clan leader rose to his feet. “We’ve come here for two things. Jiang ZongZhu: where is the Yin Tiger Seal and what really happened to Wei WuXian.”

After a sharp glare at his head disciple sitting next to him, Jiang WanYin shrugged carelessly. “As stated previously, the Yin Tiger Seal is a YunmengJiang artifact and not subject to the LanlingJin. Any punishments regarding Wei WuXian’s potential lies regarding this item are internal to YunmengJiang and not subject to the LanlingJin. As for my Head Disciple? Wen Daifu has been treating him for over a year and just recently developed a method that has finally healed his damaged Core.”

“Damaged Core?” A new voice hmmphed. “The way I heard it, he cut it out of himself and gave it to you!”

“You heard it wrong.” Jiang WanYin’s voice was resolute. 

Another voice from the crowd yelled, “I heard it, too, Shandu ShengShou.”

Nie HuaiSang fluttered his fan. “I absolutely adore how rumors get started. I suppose the story goes something like….” He paused dramatically and sighed deeply. “Set the stage! See the helpless Jiang WanYin, recently captured and condemned to death by the vicious Wen Chao upon the fall of Lotus Pier.” One hand rose elegantly, pointing to an imaginary hero up near the ceiling. “See his shige, Wei WuXian, desperate to save his new sect leader!” The other hand rose, pointing to another section of the ceiling. “The young Head Disciple invades the Wen camp, evading all who mean to capture and execute him! He finds the young sect leader… in a dank dungeon… bound, gagged, and tortured to the point of having his Core melted by the Core Melting Hand! The Head Disciple is wise and powerful and sneaky beyond his years and steals his sect leader out from under the nose of the evil Wen! He takes his shidi to the best doctors in the jianghe, asking that they remove his Core and implant it into Sandu ShengShou. One by one, they reject him. ‘One’s golden Core is sacrosanct. One cannot simply excise it and implant it into another person. The Core will die along with the donor!’ they cry.” He looked around the Hall at his captive audience. “Finally, on a cold, windy, rainy night, they encounter a hedge wizard who says, ‘what the Hell? It’s your death, not mine. Make sure you’ve settled your debts first and I’ll do it.’ Wei WuXian is too poor to be able to pay back his debts, so he wills them to his sect leader to pay off and pulls apart his robes, baring his lower dantian to the wizard. ‘Do it!’ he commands.”

“Why does it have to be a cold, windy, and rainy night?” Jiang Cheng interrupted. “Why can’t we meet the hedge wizard on a pleasant and sunny day? Also… Lotus Pier’s dungeons are not ‘dank’; they’re above ground and actually quite a pleasant place to play in.”

“Stories about hedge wizards always have the heroes meeting them in unpleasant weather. It’s necessary to set the tone.”

“What debts did Wei WuXian have?” Jiang YanLi questioned. “My father paid him well for his services and no one in the town has ever had an issue with my shidi not paying for goods or food. All bills submitted to our treasurer were promptly paid.”

“Fine!” Nie HuaiSang snapped. “Wei WuXian had no debts to will to Jiang WanYin. But they still met the wizard on a cold, rainy, day . Does that make the story more enjoyable?”

“Yes, thank you,” Jiang WanYin nodded his thanks. “Much more realistic. What responsible hedge wizard is going to open his doors to strangers on a rainy night? It’s practically a guarantee they’re going to kill him.”

“As I was saying before I was interrupted…. Wei WuXian pulls apart his robes, baring his lower dantian to the wizard. ‘Do it!’ he commands. The wizard pulls out a musty piece of leather and says, ‘Bite on this. It’s going to hurt!’.”

“There’s no way I’m putting some stranger’s musty leather into my mouth before getting cut open,” Wei WuXian shivered in disgust. “I’ll bite my own belt, thank you. At least I know where my belt has been.”

Nie HuaiSang’s glare should have set his friend on fire. “‘No!’ Young Wei WuXian exclaims, removes his belt, and shoves that into his mouth just as the wizard pulls out a knife.” Here, Nie HuaiSang modeled the absurdly large size of the knife about to gut his hero.

“No healer worth the name is going to do surgery with that thing,” Wen Qing called out, disgusted. “Especially not in the lower dantian. Your wizard would use a knife with a handle that fits comfortably in the hand and a small blade.” 

Nie HuiaSang pouted. “The story is much better with a huge blade. Makes it more dramatic.” He pouted even more. “Perhaps I should make you the hedge wizard,” he threatened.

“Not while using such a blade,” she retorted. “Besides… you already had your heroes ask the best doctors in the jianghe and we all turned them down. So, I can’t be your hedge wizard.” The room erupted in laughter.

The storyteller was undeterred. “With a grunt, the wizard slashes Wei WuXian’s belly open.”

“Lower dantian,” Wen Qing reminds him. “He should have them strip their robes off entirely; cutting open a person with such a large knife gets very bloody very quickly.”

“In the meantime,” he speaks loudly over the newest interruption, “Jiang WanYin has also opened his robes and has his own belt shoved into his mouth. His sense of superiority tells him that he is entitled to his Head Disciple’s Core.”

“I would never think that,” Jiang WanYin roared. “You make me unconscious! Do you hear me? Wei WuXian is beset by a sense of duty, knocks me out, and demands the wizard perform the transplant even though I strenuously objected!”

“Who’s telling this story? Me or you?” Nie HuaiSang snapped. 

“Tell it the right way!” Jiang WanYin roared as Lan XiChen stood up. 

“As amusing as this story is to hear, and it really does do the rumors justice, Nie Gongzi, I applaud your skills…. We need to return to the topic at hand. Wei Gongzi was a guest in Cloud Recesses for several months. My healers worked with him to regain his physical health and repair his meridians. I was kept abreast of all interactions; not once did my healers mention that Wei Gongzi’s Core was missing. Only that it was damaged by his use of yin energy during the war.”

Wei WuXian hoped his burst of laughter was covered by his attempt to pretend it was a cough. Lies, Lan ZongZhu? I thought lying was against the Lan Rules? Or did the only one who examined me really not notice my Core was missing? After all, even Xu Daifu had thought it was suppressed by yin energy and not gone. Was the shear volume of yin energy coursing through my body enough to keep them from noticing?

“Enough of this farce,” Jin GuangShan snarled. “Wei WuXian! Prove you have a Core!”

Chapter Text

“Of course.” Wei WuXian stood up, not quite as smoothly as he’d like, and drew Suibian from its sheath. He channeled his spiritual energy into the blade, feeling the blade’s ‘awareness’ slide into himself, creating the intimate connection between cultivator and sword. In response, it glowed softly. “Hello, my friend,” he crooned, feeling the connection reach deeper into his body… into his soul. “I missed you, too.” 

“Where is the Yin Tiger Seal?”

Jin ZiXuan stood, motioning to Lan XiChen. Abruptly, the Jin sect leader’s mouth snapped closed. Muffled attempts to yell erupted from his nose. “Jiang ZongZhu, Wei Gongzi, esteemed guests,” he bowed low, back parallel to the ground. Standing straight again, he continued, “I must apologize on behalf of my family. My father has a woman… friend in Lanling City who he likes to… spend time with and drink tea with. Unfortunately, one of her other male… friends she drinks tea with has a disease. He shared that disease with my father’s friend and she, unfortunately, passed that disease onto my father. This disease is incurable at the moment, and even more unfortunately, it causes the… bearers to have… certain behavior changes. This obsession with the Yin Tiger Seal is just one of the issues to have arisen from this disease. Another, of course, is his belief that he should be named Xiandu. When I left Koi Tower a few nights ago to apologize to my wife’s family for my father’s actions, my mother insisted she would have my father under control; there is medication that keeps him… more aware of reality. Before she could give him the medicine, though, he overpowered her and sent her to the infirmary for treatment. I am ashamed of his actions, to my mother and to all of you here, and will be taking steps upon my return to Koi Tower to assume the sect leader position.”

“Your father caught a disease from a whore?” One man brayed. Jin ZiXuan looked miserably embarrassed as he bowed again. 

Jiang YanLi rose. “Come, Husband. Let’s take your father home.”

Still in a bow, Jin ZiXuan pleaded, “Please forgive my father’s actions.” He helped Jin GuangShan to stand and led him from the Hall. “Come, Father. Let’s go home.”

Wei WuXian wanted to laugh in delight. Jin ZiXuan, ostensibly ‘assisting’ his parent, had instead placed one of Wei WuXian’s talismans on the man’s shoulder. The talisman forced the wearer to be docile and only do exactly what he was told. Fortunately for him, he was still under Lan Zhan’s Silencing spell, so could only shake silently in delight.

This scandal was sufficiently large enough that more people were interested in discussing it than remembering to inquire about the Seal. Which, Wei WuXian supposed, was one of the reasons Jin ZiXuan was willing to humiliate his father and sect like that. The other major reason, of course, being that he now had control over LanlingJin. 

Wei WuXian was looking forward to celebrating all of the news he’d heard that night with Lan WangJi. 

Except the GusuLan left Lotus Pier almost as quickly as the LanlingJin did.

Two months later, Wei WuXian dual cultivated with Jiang Cheng. The results were astounding. From one day to the next, he grew strong enough to be able to fly on his sword again. Not that he particularly wanted to fly on Suibian…. He did: he remembered how freeing it felt to be up in the air. He didn’t: he remembered free falling.

A month after that, Jiang YanLi arrived at Lotus Pier for a sword lesson. “Shijie…” Wei WuXian looked closely at his martial sister. “Did you?”

“Dual cultivate with A’Xuan?” She giggled and ducked her head. “Yes. By the way… you’re going to be an uncle again.”

“You shouldn’t be sword fighting while pregnant!”

“I’m pregnant, A’Xian. Not helpless.”

After the second dual cultivation session, Wen Qing asked Wei WuXian to visit her for a check up. Walking down the road to her clan, he stopped upon seeing a man in white walking in the opposite direction. “Lan Zhan!”

“Wei Ying.”

He ran up to his friend. “I’m on my way to Wen Daifu to have her check on my progress. Where are you headed? Can it wait a bit? You can come with me, and then I’ll go with you!”

“Night hunt. Not urgent.”

“Excellent!” Wei WuXian smiled so hard his cheeks hurt. He was pronounced progressing nicely by the doctor. 

The night hunt was at a small village who was dealing with a mischievous ghost. It was easily settled, but by then, it was getting dark. As the village boasted no inns, the headmaster offered a room in his house for the night as recompense. “My daughters are grown and living in their own homes,” he stated. “Their room is the only one available. We can’t permit you to travel at night or to sleep on the road when there is a perfectly good room right here.”

“Mmmm.”

The daughter’s room was small, but contained a rather large bed. “Four girls slept here,” the headmaster announced proudly. “All grown now and married. All with children of their own.” Wei WuXian mouthed the proper blessings and congratulations. “So you should have plenty of room to share it,” the man continued.

“It’s more than satisfactory,” Lan WangJi gave a small bow and closed the door behind them. 

Wei WuXian’s eyes skittered all around the room, avoiding the bed. I want to kiss him. Does he want to kiss me? It’s been months. I don’t even know how to ask! Do you just blurt it out? Or… are there roundabout ways to hint ‘hey kiss me until I can’t remember my name’? He called me his zhiji…. But zhiji’s are not just physical, right? It’s a mental thing? I’ve read of zhijis who cultivate a celibate path, so…. Physical intimacy is obviously not necessary. He was startled from his self reflections by Lan WangJi throwing silencing talismans at the walls.

“The headmaster is still in the courtyard,” Lan WangJi spoke from where he stood by a window. “I don’t feel he needs to hear any conversation we might have.”

“Good idea,” Wei WuXian laughed, and cringed at how unnatural it sounded. Nervous. I sound nervous. I’m never nervous. What do I have to be nervous about? I’m babbling in my head. Stop, Wei Ying. There's nothing here to be nervous about. It’s just Lan Zhan. And a bed. A large bed that we can definitely roll around on together. 

Lan WangJi abandoned his position at the window to walk over to the privacy screen. “I’ll just change for bed?”

“Sure.”

With Lan WangJi on the other side of the screen, it made sense for Wei WuXian to disrobe on this side. He must have been slower, or Lan Zhan must have been faster as he was only partially undressed when Lan Zhan came back out. “Wei Ying….”

Wei Ying shrugged out of his inner robe to stand before his friend clad only in his shirt and trousers, bare feet curling against the wooden floor. “You’re beautiful.” With his hair down, even his forehead ribbon was missing, and clad only in a silk sleeping robe, Lan Zhan looked…. Wei Ying’s brain couldn’t come up with an appropriate description. ‘Beautiful’ was too bland. “Can I kiss you?” I didn’t mean to say that!

The kiss was hungry. Four months of being separated seemed to mean they had to learn how to kiss all over again. Their lips and tongues apparently remembered how to act, but their teeth kept interfering. 

Or maybe… maybe Lan Zhan’s teeth knew exactly what they were doing. Wei Ying keened as those teeth bit down around his nipple. When did I take off my shirt? He woke up enough  from being kissed senseless to realize neither of them had clothes on. There was sudden movement, and he found himself kneeling over his friend’s hips. There was something wet and hard pulsing at the crack in his backside, and oh, that feels… weird. And good. And weird. And…. 

“Shift back a bit,” a deep voice ordered. 

He obeyed, because, how could he not? A hand sneaked between his thighs, there was a bit of fumbling and then a hand on his cock. “Fuck,” he breathed. “Fuck that feels good.” The hand slowly sliding up and down his length pulled a bit, forcing him to lower his hips. And then it let go. He whined in frustration, “Lan Zhan….”

“Together,” his friend answered. “Watch.”

Wei Ying looked down to see both of their cocks pulsing , one above the other. Then a large hand enveloped them both. “Fuck! Don’t stop. Lan Zhan….” His hips shoved forward, pressing himself through the fist. “This feels….”

“Yes.” Lan Zhan’s face was screwed up, showing his own pleasure. “Wei Ying… I’m going to finish.”

“Me, too.” Stamina? What stamina? What was pride in being able to hold out for a long time worth when Lan Zhan’s hand and cock was stroking him to release? He shuddered and made punched out, unintelligible noises as he released all over his friend’s chest. Lan Zhan quickly followed, but he used his hand to cover the tip. Then with his clean hand, he wiped up some of the mess on his chest with a finger and licked it. “Lan Zhan! You ate it?”

“Mmm,” the older one acknowledged the obvious. “Salty.”

“Why would you do such a thing?” Wei WuXian allowed his wobbly arms to collapse, falling sideways onto the bed. 

“Wanted to know what you tasted like.”

“Why would you need to know what that tastes like? It’s not like you’re going to use your…. Lan Zhan…. Were you really?” Thinking of using your mouth on me? His brain finished what his mouth was too thin skinned to speak. 

In response, Lan Zhan held out his hand, dripping with his own release, towards his friend’s face. “I have thought about it.” Unspoken was, ‘have you?’

The honest answer was ‘no’. The more complete answer was, ‘I am now.’ Wei Ying crunched up to better reach the hand. “You smell good,” he offered before licking a swipe down the middle of the palm. “Salty, is right.” It was getting cold and congealing, and wasn’t exactly a pleasant taste. It also wasn’t entirely unpleasant : he’d eaten far worse. Maybe it will taste better when it’s still warm? Some foods are like that….. Not that this is food….

Wei WuXian returned to Lotus Pier via Koi Tower. “Shijie,” he whined. “Why not?”

“Because you’re not a disciple,” she answered serenely. “You’re a smart boy; I’m sure you can figure out how to make them.”

“Just because I can figure it out eventually doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make my life easier by showing me how to make them,” he continued his whine. “Someone already showed Nie HuaiSang how to make a butterfly.” He pouted the most spectacular pout of his career. 

“Then go bother Nie HuaiSang.” She reached out to tussle his hair. “Silly boy to think I would give you proprietary spells.”

He wanted to head straight to the Unclean Realm; Jiang WanYin ordered him home. “You have responsibilities here. Or have you forgotten you’re my Head Disciple?”

“I haven’t forgotten,” he whined. “I just have other responsibilities.”

“You can write to Lan WangJi using paper and a messenger like the rest of us,” Jiang WangYin ordered and pointed his Head Disciple towards the training grounds. “Sword practice and then there’s a group of juniors scheduled to attend a night hunt. The senior who was supposed to oversee them was injured when one of their talismans blew up. So you need to find a new senior.”

“I can do it!” Wei WuXian shelved his whining for another time. “I can extend the hunt to the Unclean Realm. We can all learn the trick of making Jin butterflies.” He grinned, completely unrepentant.

“You are hopeless,” Jiang WanYin sighed. “Do as you will. Just bring them all home in one piece.”

It was a successful hunt. And Nie HuaiSang was happy to share his knowledge. 

The new problem, then, was that Jin butterflies were, obviously, Jin. And Nie HuaiSang’s bird version was… a bird. He needed something that Lan Zhan would know meant ‘Wei WuXian sent this!’ But no one else would be able to guess. A lotus blossom was too obvious. “Lily,” he mused. “Good fortune and happiness? Or should I make it a gentian? Like the flowers outside the Jingshi?” He shook his head. “Too obvious again.” He altered the spell to create a lily, cast it with a whisper. “Lan Zhan…. Look what I learned how to do! We can send messages so easily now!” He sent it off, and then sent a more traditional letter containing the spell and instructions on how to modify it, so his friend could respond. 

A few days later, a translucent white bunny wearing a Lan forehead ribbon hopped its way onto Wei WuXian’s shoulder. “Hello, Zhiji.”

Wei WuXian burst into laughter. “Lan Zhan… You are so adorable.”

Chapter Text

A few more months passed where Wei WuXian acted like an adult. He did his duties, led night hunts, and studied the Yin Tiger Seal. He needed to learn how to either destroy it or neutralize it before the sects remembered it existed. 

“ChengCheng,” he wheedled, “I need a teensy favor.”

“What?” Jiang WanYin groused; he was practically buried in paperwork. 

“I need you to ask Lan XiChen for a favor.” He leaned over to look more carefully at the papers; he’d thought he’d seen his name on them. “What’s this?” he grabbed one: yes, there was his name. “Why are people writing to you about me?”

Jiang WanYin looked up and rubbed at an ink stain on his wrist. “Marriage proposals. Fifteen this week alone. Being fourth on the list of handsome young masters has gotten you something at last.”

“Marriage?” Wei WuXian dropped the page as if it was burning his hand. “I’m not interested in getting married.”

“I’m rejecting most of the proposals. There’s one I’m considering. It’s not a full proposal, it’s more of a ‘do I think that perhaps this is a good thing because it’s either a really good idea or the worst idea ever conceived in the entire history of the world’.”

“You can reject that one, too,” Wei WuXian made an annoyed/slightly disgusted face. “I’m really not interested in getting married just yet. I’d prefer to actually like my wife before I ask her to marry me.”

“I’ll give you that,” Jiang WanYin promised. “One of us should marry because we actually like the person. A’Jie is discussing my marriage with matchmakers and is looking at what the sect needs to become more stable.” He sighed. “What do you need from Lan XiChen?”

“Just a teeny, tiny, itty-bitty favor?” Wei WuXian smiled his finest ‘trust me’ smile. “I need to destroy the Yin Tiger Seal. I think the best place to do that is the Burial Mounds.”

“No.”

“Yes. I know how to live there. Especially since I’ll bring supplies this time around. And I know how to leave the mountain anytime I wish.”

“So how does Lan XiChen fit into your plans? I assume you want Lan WangJi to go with you?”

“Good guess. He’s a good listener. I think he can help me destroy it safely.”

“Safely?” Jiang WanYin sounded skeptical.

Wei WuXian put even more effort into his ‘trust me’ smile. “Well… I could just overload it with yin energy. That would probably destroy it. But it would also take down the mountain and everything on it.”

“Including you.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll request that Lan WangJi meet you in Yiling. He’s a good choice to validate your ideas of what’s an acceptable risk. How long do you think it’s going to take?”

“Three months? Four? Better to ask for six, though. That way if we finish early, we appear smarter.”

“Six months?” Jiang WanYin sounded scandalized. “You want to live in the Burial Mounds, alone with Lan WangJi, for six months?”

“It really shouldn’t take more than four….” Wei WuXian defended himself, not really sure why the idea of spending several months on the mountain was something to be shocked about. He’d already lived there for three months… alright, he’d subsisted there for three months. He already had preliminary protections already sketched around the Demon Slaughtering Cave; it would be incredibly easy for him and Lan Zhan to strengthen them. They’d bring provisions with them and leave the mountain to get more as needed. It wasn’t going to be nearly as difficult as it had after Wen Chao dropped him off there. Why was Jiang WanYin looking at him like that?

Lan Wangji carefully composed his facial features and restated what his brother had asked. “Wei Ying wants to know if I would assist him in destroying the Yin Tiger Seal? And it will require us to live in the Burial Mounds for the foreseeable future?” He pretended to think after his brother nodded. Of course I’ll go. Six months of having Wei Ying all to myself? Was there even a shadow of a doubt that I’ll say yes? Instead he bowed his head slightly. “I would be honored to assist Wei Ying, as long as you’re sure I’m not needed here.” 

Lan XiChen’s quiet smile was reassuring. “Destroying the Seal is a far more important duty than teaching juniors. Prepare as you see fit, and I’ll arrange for people to handle your responsibilities here. As I understand it, there is nothing there. No shelter, other than a cave. You will need to bring food as well as pots for cooking and things to eat off and with, wood for fires, something to sleep on, sitting mats… everything. Like newlyweds furnishing their home.” Lan XiChen blushed.

Lan WangJi could feel the tips of his ears heating; hopefully the fringe of his hair was covering them. Newlyweds. Newlyweds have wedding nights…. Wei Ying seems amenable to at least part of wedding night activities. Images assaulted his brain: The two of them living in a cave that looked suspiciously like the Xuanwu of Slaughter’s cave. A bed piled high with warm blankets. A bed with nice, strong posts so he could tie Wei Ying’s limbs to them, rendering him helpless. 

“Perhaps I should send some senior disciples or servants with you,” Lan XiChen mused, apparently unaware of the direction his brother’s thoughts had traveled. “As I understand it, Wei WuXian doesn’t know how to cook anything that isn’t deathly spicy. And you only know how to cook the blandest of sick foods. Yes. A cook would be appreciated, I’m sure. Perhaps you won’t need senior disciples with you all the time…. I’ll discuss it with Jiang WanYin. Perhaps a rotating set of disciples stationed in Yiling? That’s close enough if you need assistance but far enough to allow you space to work in.”

Translucent bunnies, one white wearing a forehead ribbon and one black with a red ribbon around its neck tied in a jaunty bow, traveled back and forth as Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian made arrangements for their time alone together. 

A cook was deemed absolutely necessary; one who could cook meals palatable to both the YunmengJiang and GusuLan palate was found, hired, and then he refused to live on the mountain. Wei WuXian spent a day making a trail up to the cave that was completely protected from any corpse that might be in search of a fight. Or food. 

Jiang WanYin insisted on building them proper houses and a large workshop. “I won’t have my Head Disciple living in a cave,” he hissed loudly, on more than a dozen occasions. As privately as possible, Lan WangJi agreed with the irascible sect leader; he had no intention of actually using the second house designated as his, though, unless they had guests. Outside appearances were important, especially when the builders erected not two, but four houses. “I’m certainly not sleeping with you when I come to visit!” the Jiang Sect leader yelled. “And what if A’Jie wants to visit at the same time? Or Lan ZongZhu? It’s just as easy to build four as it is two.”

Even Wen Qing got herself involved. “I will be attending you monthly to assess your health.”

“Wen Daifu… I will be fine,” Wei WuXian tried to plead.

“Don’t give me excuses about how you survived last time. Last time you were coreless and became infested with yin energy. Now you both have Cores. I will be checking in on you to make sure your meridians and Cores are functioning normally.”

“Lan Zhan can play Cleansing,” Wei WuXian tried again. He was defeated with a look. Three looks, actually… No… four. Lan WangJi was pretty sure his face was also giving his lover a look . 

Eventually, the building was completed.

Eventually, Lan XiChen and his disciples returned to his duties, followed quickly by Wen Qing. Jiang WanYin and his disciples left a few days later.

Finally… Lan WangJi found himself in a brand new house, filled with brand new furniture and the nearly inescapable urge to throw Wei Ying onto one of the beds… to test how sturdy it was. He could also test how sturdy the bed posts were….

All that was missing was his lover….

He found him sitting on a boulder playing Chenqing to a child ghoul. “You should go, little one,” Wei Ying pleaded with the child. “I promised to help you go reincarnate if you’d help me win the war. We won; you need to let me help you, now.” The child was gnawing on a bone and shook its head fiercely. “Yes.” The child motioned with its arms and bone and looked angry. “I know your last parents were not nice people; that doesn’t mean your next set of parents have to be.”

“What happened with his parents?” Lan WangJi asked quietly.

“Too many mouths to feed during a famine,” Wei WuXian explained, as the child nuzzled up against his leg, back to chewing on the bone. “They put the youngest ones in here to die. The older ones who could work were sold off.”

“Sickening.”

“You should go, Child,” Wei WuXian pleaded again. “Let me send you off; you should be reincarnated quickly. Maybe… maybe you can reincarnate as one of my children.” To Lan Wangji, explained, “Is your brother pressuring you like ChengCheng is pressuring me to marry? It’s annoying. I don’t want to marry just yet.” To the child looking accusingly up at him, he added. “I want to be a father. How about this? You go off to reincarnate and we’ll both pray for you to come back as my child?”

“I can make him go,” Lan Wangji offered.

“That’s not much different than what his parents did, is it?” Wei WuXian frowned. “He’s been hurt enough by adults. He’s still young, even though he’s been here for a couple hundred years. He doesn’t understand the way the more adult ghosts who traveled with me did. He feels safe with me, and leaving to reincarnate is scary.” The child made a series of movements and noises. “I promise,” Wei WuXian held up three fingers. “I promise that I will pray everyday for you to reincarnate as my child. And if that’s not possible, then I pray for you to be born to parents who will love you as much as I would.” The child apparently understood; he gripped his bone tightly, gave a final nuzzle into his benefactor’s leg and then scampered off into the wild.

“You can love even a ghoul.” It should have sounded ridiculous; somehow, it sounded completely normal.

Wei WuXian grinned. “It’s easy to love the kid when he, quite literally, ate Wen Chao alive. Are you hungry? For some reason, I’m hungry. Spending time with that walking stomach seems to do that to me.” 

Walking stomach? He must mean the child ghoul. “I believe our cook left with the others. I think there is food we can heat up, though. Or food for a quick stir-fry. Or are you in the mood for something sweet? I saw a few small cakes earlier.”

Chapter Text

Lan WangJi heated up a tofu dish for himself while Wei WuXian heated a dry, spicy noodle dish. Seeing his lover slurp those noodles into his mouth, leaving behind lips glistening with chili oil, made his body ache with want. “Wei Ying… I want to kiss you.”

“Sure!” Wei WuXian smiled. “I’ll just wipe my mouth first.”

“No.” Want to kiss the spice off your mouth. Want to feel the burn.

The smile faded. “It will hurt, Lan Zhan. My mouth is pleasantly spicy. You don’t like spice.”

“Want to kiss you.” Words were huddled behind his teeth, refusing to let him explain that this was something he’d thought about for a long time. Instead of trying to force the words to do his bidding, he simply leaned over and took what he wanted. 

It burned. The streaks of pleasure roaming up and down and around his body as their tongues entwined meshed and clashed with the spice devouring his taste buds and burning holes in his lips. He knew he was whimpering and gasping as they kissed; he didn’t care. 

This was everything he’d dreamed about. He wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.

“Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan… Do you really like this?” As an answer, he took his lover’s hand and placed it on his lap. “But you don’t like spice!”

Lan Zhan shook his head. “Wanted to try. Pain and pleasure mix.”

Wei Ying made a face. “Pain and pleasure mix? That sounds… how can one enjoy being hurt?”

“You like it when I bite and suck on you.”

“That’s different.”

Lan Zhan shook his head again. “Same idea. Feel pleasure in pain. Want to try with you.”

“You want to hurt me while giving me pleasure?” He sounded skeptical.

“Maybe.” Another desire flitted into his head and he took a chance. “Want to tie your hands to the bed posts and pleasure you.”

Wei Ying looked thoughtful and a bit intrigued. “What if… what if I don’t like it and want to get my hands back?”

“Say ‘stop’ and I’ll stop.”

“Let me think?”

Lan WangJi waited while his lover thought. He waited while they cleaned up after dinner. He waited through each of their baths. Then, a shirtless Wei Ying laid down on their bed and placed his hands over his head, placing his full trust in his friend. “I agree.”

“You’ll let me tie your hands?” 

Wei Ying nodded, ‘yes’. “I trust you. Two things, though. No hitting or spanking me. And I stay a virgin.”

It was an amazing gift, such trust. Lan Zhan tied each wrist to a ribbon and then tied the ribbons to the posts. “You can pull here,” he demonstrated, “and the knots will come loose.”

“I trust you.” Silver eyes were steady as they looked into golden ones. Steady and trusting. “Just don’t make marks where surprise visitors can see.” 

Lan Zhan looked down at the body lying so still before him. This beautiful body that was his to play with for a while. His to adore, to worship, to tease, to pleasure, to hurt. He let his hands brush over the bare torso, painting it with his fingertips, committing it to memory for the nights ahead when they wouldn’t be together anymore. “I love touching you,” he whispered. As if speaking in a normal tone was disrespectful. One finger circled a nipple; he watched it stiffen into a peak. His mouth thirsted, so he bent his body to take that peak into his mouth and suck on it. Lightly, so lightly. He circled it with his tongue, then sucked harder, bringing out Wei Ying’s first moan. He lifted his head to find the other nipple, not wishing to neglect either of them. Fingers returning to the first, thoroughly wet nipple, first tried to sooth it, then twisted sharply, causing Wei Ying to cry out. He arched his back and shuddered; he never said ‘ow’ or ‘stop’. Lan Zhan slid his mouth over to the sternum, mouthing it, kissing it lightly, even as his hand twisted the second nipple. Wei Ying moaned again, Encouraged, he lipped his lover’s chest until he found a spot where the skin was easier to move; he sucked hard for a few moments, then lifted his head to see a beautiful mark starting to bloom. “Perfection,” he breathed. 

“Am I pretty like this, Lan Zhan? Am I prettier with your mark or without it.”

“You’re mine with my mark,” Lan Zhan growled and bent his head to a new patch of skin. “Mine.” His elbow brushed against a protrusion, bringing Lan Zhan’s awareness to his lover’s whole body. You’re hard. All I’ve done is kiss you a bit and you’re hard. 

You’re tied up and at my mercy. I could do anything to you…. Even if you untie yourself… I’m still stronger than you. I can easily hold you down and…. I can take as I wish. I might even persuade you to let me take as I wish! I want to fuck you open. I want to see you cry as my cock spears into you.I want to fill you with my seed. I want to see you finish without anyone’s hand touching your cock. I want to pull out and see my seed spilling out of your hole, all red and sore. He laid his head on Wei Ying’s stomach. I am a pervert. To want to hurt you like that. To want you to find pleasure in me hurting you.

Wei Ying’s trousers were still on. Lan Zhan reverently pulled them off. He balanced on one arm, used the other hand to play with Wei Ying’s cock, and let his mouth wander as he pleased, leaving bite marks and bruises all over his lover’s torso. Wei Ying finished with a cry, spewing his seed over his stomach. Lan Zhan cleaned him up, untied him, and then offered his own wrists to be tied. 

It was torture being tied down and unable to physically direct his lover. Wei Ying was enjoying himself, licking, biting, or nipping at skin as he pleased with no apparent thought to any body part below the hip bones. Finally, finally, Wei Ying reached for the string holding his trousers on. Suck me. Take me in your mouth. Swallow me down. Let me finish in your mouth. The urge to command was fierce; he forced his lips shut, with a mental promise that he would cast the Silencing spell on himself, if necessary. This was Wei Ying’s time to explore, not Lan Zhan’s to direct.

It wasn’t necessary. Wei Ying knelt between his legs, bowed his head and did his absolute best to take Lan Zhan’s cock deep into his mouth. 

Heaven. This is what ascending to immortality must feel like. His soul was being sucked away. As was his seed. When he came to awareness again, Wei Ying was sitting cross legged next to him, face still a bit damp from where he’d washed it clean, looking like a smug cat. 

“I quite liked doing that,” he smirked. “You’re awfully big, though; my jaw hurts a bit.” He rotated it, making faces to ease the muscles. “Oh. Let me untie you. I’m sure your wrists are sore; mine were.” He scrambled to remove the ribbons. 

Once freed, Lan Zhan surged up to kiss his lover. There was a faint bitter taste in the other’s mouth. “You swallowed it?”

“Yup!” Wei Ying looked immeasurably proud of himself. “You didn’t make it easy on me, you know. Kept trying to shove yourself down my throat as I’m trying to swallow your stuff. A bunch of it spilled out, but I cleaned you up with my tongue before it could drip onto the sheets.”

“Thank you.”

Surprisingly, Wei Ying blushed. “No need to thank me. You can do it to me someday, if you like.”

“I’d like,” Lan Zhan promised fervently. Wei Ying yawned before he could promise to do it right away. 

“You’ve made me sleepy, Lan Zhan,” he smiled. “Scoot over.”

It was like being married to someone he loved, he supposed. Giving each other orgasms and then cuddling close to sleep. 

“You didn’t ask why I want to remain a virgin.”

“You don’t want to get pregnant,” he quipped.

Wei Ying burst into laughter. “Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan. How am I the only one who knows how funny you are?”

“It’s your body. Your decision,” Lan Zhan continued on a more serious note. “If you stay a virgin your whole life or have sex with prostitutes every night…”

“No. That’s not it. Not exactly.” Wei Ying snuggled into the slightly larger body; Lan Zhan adjusted to more fully embrace his lover. “ChengCheng is negotiating my marriage. All I have in this world that is mine I can easily carry in my two hands. Everything else that I have is borrowed from someone else. I have some savings, but… not enough to give her extravagant gifts. Not enough to even buy her a home of our own.” 

Lan Zhan’s arms tightened around his lover. I don’t want you to marry her. Whoever she is. You’re my zhiji, Wei Ying. Mine.

“So… all I have to give to my future wife is myself. I can give her my friendship, my support. And my body. So it’s not that I don’t want to give myself to you, Lan Zhan. It’s that I….”

“I understand.” He did. He didn’t like it one bit; the taste of vinegar was sour and unpleasant in his mouth. “Sleep, Zhiji. Have no worries that I will take something you don’t wish to give to me.” He fell asleep with a warm body in his arms. He woke up with that warm body using him as a pillow. 

He slipped out of their house to make congee for breakfast. It was almost ready when he heard a jingling noise indicating a horse or donkey was making its way into their little settlement. He was expecting the cook and some supplies.

He wasn’t expecting to see a slew of YunmengJiang and GusuLan disciples following the donkey and cook. Each sect had sent a senior disciple and five juniors? He strode quickly to their house to wake Wei WuXian up and to make sure there was no incriminating evidence or aromas. “Wei Ying. We have guests. Wake up.”

“Sleepy. You kept me up half the night.”

“We have twelve unexpected guests,” Lan WangJi hissed. “Get up so we can figure out why they’re here and how to get rid of them.”

Chapter Text

There was no getting rid of them. The ten juniors were extremely eager to practice quelling fierce corpses, ghosts, and ghouls. The two seniors were happy they could practice in a relatively safe environment. The absent sect leaders were satisfied that their Head Disciple and heir could handle a few juniors and still accomplish their main task. 

Wei WuXian refused to share his home with the YunmengJiang senior; instead Lan Wangji moved his personal belongings into their now officially shared house. “That leaves you three buildings to split between the twelve of you. I really don’t care how.” Wei WuXian was feeling rather snarky after being woken up at such an unholy hour by unwelcome guests. 

He also had to stop them from dispelling his ‘child’, now named Chang Wei. “Don’t even think about sending him away,” he spoke harshly to the juniors. “This is my friend, and I’ll send him when he’s ready.”

“But he’s a ghoul!”

“A ghoul who ate Wen Chao. You should show appropriate thanks.” Chang Wei crouched at Wei WuXian’s feet and growled at the juniors, most of whom looked sick at the thought of cannibalism. “Now, my little walking stomach, you’re not allowed to eat them, either.” It glared at its benefactor, who looked unperturbed. 

It wasn’t exactly bad having twelve uninvited guests. The juniors stayed with their seniors for the most part, seldom requiring assistance from Wei WuXian or Lan WangJi after the first day or two. It was actually almost pleasant hearing their voices calling out ‘Wei Chianbei!’ or ‘Wei Laoshi!’ It was also good for when the inevitable requests for assistance with the fae in the areas surrounding Yiling City, he could send a few of them out with a senior, or even take them out himself when he needed a break from thinking about how to safely destroy the Yin Tiger Seal.

It wasn’t nearly as pleasant when the requests for aid were directed first to ‘Wei Laozu’ and then ‘Yiling Laozu’ instead of ‘esteemed cultivators in the Burial Mounds’. 

The juniors, thankfully, weren’t going to be permanent residents. They came for two weeks, there was a week of peace, and then the next batch strolled up the mountain. At first it was only the great sects sending their groups of six. After almost three months, though, some of the smaller clans were permitted to send their disciples up. After all, everyone liked the idea of a relatively safe night hunt. 

Wei WuXian did remind his sect leader that the more time he spent on other things meant the less time he had to spend researching how to destroy the Seal. Both Jiang WanYin and Lan XiChen indicated they had no issues with them staying right where they were.

For Wei WuXian, this was as close to perfection as his life had ever been. He woke in bedding that smelled of them : sandalwood and lotus flowers and sex. There was hot food waiting for him and clean clothes. Then the rest of the day, he did as he pleased. Whether he was assisting in sending the poor souls of the Burial Mounds onto their next lives or hiding in the cave or workroom researching his Seal, or heading down the mountain to assist a local farmer or merchant, was his to decide. 

His and Lan Zhan’s, who was a very willing partner to anything Wei WuXian wanted to do. Even if it was a morning of shutting themselves away in the cave to do research or to do ‘research’. There was a flatish rock in one of the cave rooms that he’d used as a bed the first time he’d found himself in the Burial Mounds. He’d bought some blankets and a mattress for it on the pretext that he took naps on it. 

It wasn’t exactly a pretext…. He did take naps on it. But only after a mutual masturbation session.

Wen Qing arrived three days early for her monthly examination. Normally, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi refrained from their nightly activities two days before her arrival to reduce, as much as possible, the odds of her discovering what they got up to. Not only had they rutted against each other the previous night, Wei Ying woke up that morning with Lan Zhan lying between his legs, bringing him off with his mouth. It was a fantastic way to start the day. 

Except Wen Qing was three days early. “I apologize, Wei Gongzi, Lan Er’Gongzi,” she stated formally. “The weather in Gusu seems likely to snow soon; I wanted to be here and gone long before then.”

“Of course, Wen Daifu,” Lan WangJi had responded graciously, and held out his wrist without blushing. Wei WuXian felt the stings of jealousy hitting him; he was blushing already. Especially when it was his turn to hand over his own wrist. She knows! How can she not???? Her eyes flicked from one man to the other and back. 

All she said, though, was, “You’re looking remarkably healthy for having lived here for the last several months. I would suggest only one more dual cultivation session sometime before the New Year arrives and then refrain until next summer.” A scream and loud crying drew their attention. “A’Yuan!”

The three piled out of the workshop, running to the sound of the crying. Wen Yuan was at the edge of the barrier, crying and yelling at the child ghoul, who had backed into the unprotected area. “A’Yuan… what happened?” Wen Qing demanded, kneeling in the dirt and checking her nephew for obvious injuries.

“He stole my butterfly and ate it and I said he could play with it but I didn’t say he could eat it and he ate it anyway and you’re not supposa eat grass. Gugu! Make him spit it out! I spent hours and hours and days and days painting it so XianGege could see my hard work and my beautiful butterfly and I was careful to keep it pretty and nice and he ate it!” The child wiped the tears running down his cheeks with his hand and then stuck his tongue out like he was going to lick the snots dribbling down to his lips.

“Don’t eat that,” Wen Qing warned; Wen Yuan immediately wiped his nose with his wet hands, and then his hands on his backside. 

“He ate my butterfly!”

Wei WuXian forced the laugh from his features to scold his ghoul. “Hey! Chang Wei. Bad ghoul.” It looked frustrated and patted its tummy. “No. He was showing you the toy. Not offering it as something to eat!” It shrugged and rubbed its belly again. “I know you’re hungry. A’Yuan… this is my friend. He’s always hungry. So if you give it anything, it’s going to assume it’s edible.”

“What’s eb’el?”

“Edible,” Wei WuXian enunciated. “Something you can eat and not get sick. Except he’s dead so he can eat everything that fits in his mouth.”

Wen Yuan rubbed more snots and tears from his face, wiping his dirty hands on his backside again. “Why’s his name Change Wei? He’s old enough to know better. I’m only six and I know not to eat grass and Jin Ling is a baby still and even he didn’t eat my butterfly but he wanted to stick it in his mouth and LiAyi said not to and your friend is same size as me and he ate it? How come he doesn’t know you don’t eat butterflies?”

“Wipe your hands and face on a napkin, not your robes,” Wen Qing scolded. Wen Yuan gave her a look which clearly demanded to know why it was acceptable to wipe snot on one piece of material but not another: cloth was cloth! To no one, she complained. “This child is growing wild. I don’t have time to parent him and Popo is getting too old. She can’t chase him around. A’Ning tries, but he has duties, too.”

Wen Yuan sat down and glared at the ghoul. “Least I know enough to not eat grass!”

Wei WuXian lost the battle to laugh. “Alright, alright, young master trouble. I’ll take you into town and get you a new butterfly, okay? And his name is Chang Wei because he’s a walking stomach.”

“Okay.” Wen Yuan huffed. “You better get him one, too, so he doesn’t eat mine again.” 

“Wen Daifu, how long were you planning on staying with us?”

She sighed and huffed at a hank of hair that had fallen out of her hair-do. “I was hoping to leave in a day or two at the latest. It’s a long journey even by sword when someone gets antsy and won’t stand still for more than an incense stick of time. We definitely need to be home before the snow.” She took a breath and sighed it out. “Lan Gongzi? Would you mind taking A’Yuan to get his face washed?”

It was obviously a ploy to get Wei WuXian alone with the healer; Lan WangJi ‘mmm’ed and motioned for the child to proceed him back to the houses. Wei WuXian made as if to follow; she gave him a look which pinned his heels to the ground. “Did you need something, QingJie?” He rather hoped the familiarity would send her into a (mock?) rage and he could escape whatever was coming.

“Wei Wu Xian,” she snapped each syllable. “Since when did I earn the dubious honor of becoming your sister?” Before he could open his mouth to sass something, she shook her head. “Never mind. I need to reassure you of something.”

“What?” 

“What you and Lan Er’Gongzi do together is none of my personal business. 

“I will report on the state of your Cores to Jiang ZongZhu and Lan ZongZhu and nothing more. 

“As your doctor, though, are you being careful? Do you need… information about having sex with a man? I can send you a comprehensive text. If you’re not careful, you can make each other bleed, and feces can get into the body and cause an infection. Your Cores should be sufficient to heal you from it, but not if you’re reopening wounds on a regular basis.”

He colored. “You don’t have to worry, Wen Daifu. It’s… we’re not like that.” As she opened her mouth, he hastily added, “We just use our hands.” He refused to admit that he enjoyed trying to take Lan Zhan’s cock into his throat without gagging. He hadn’t succeeded yet, but he was determined to one day. She arched one elegant eyebrow at that lie, but merely nodded.

Chapter Text

Wei WuXian stood in the doorway to his workshop and held out a hand. “It’s snowing, Lan Zhan,” he offered to the man currently playing Calming on his guqin. The flakes floating down were melting when they hit the ground. The light was dim, trying to pierce through the clouds and mostly failing; it almost looked silver if he squinted just right. 

“Come inside, Wei Ying, and shut the door” Lan WangJi ordered. “You’re letting all the heat out.”

Wei WuXian laughed lightly. “And I’ll complain that I’m cold? In a moment…. It’s so pretty.”

Lan WangJi rose smoothly and walked to wrap his arms around the other’s waist. “You always like the first snowfall. Then you complain when it’s too deep to walk in and the juniors haven’t shoveled the paths properly.” 

“You know me too well, Lan Zhan.” Wei WuXian tilted his head to give a light peck to his friend’s cheek. It was amazing and wonderful and sweet and delightful that he could do that as often as he wished. He didn’t have to ask or wait for bedtime. As long as they were alone, he could just… kiss or touch. In response, Lan Zhan turned his head to press a lingering kiss against the skin behind Wei WuXian’s ear. It made him shiver, as it always did. Lan WangJi’s arms tightened at the shiver, as they always did. 

I like this. A version of the life I envisioned when I was young. Of course, back then I didn’t think we’d be kissing. He chuckled a bit at his younger self’s naivety. Two men living together platonically? Not that I knew two men could live like this….  

“What’s funny?”

“I’m just happy, Lan Zhan. I have everything I need. Even in this desolate place…. I’m just happy. And it’s snowing.” His cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so hard. 

“You have what you need…. What about what you want?” 

What do I want? A sliver of a memory slid into his head. “I don’t remember much about my parents. I have this one memory…. Baba is walking, leading the donkey Mama is riding on. They’re laughing at some joke I can’t remember. I was sitting on his shoulders laughing, too, even though I don’t think I understood the joke. I… want that.”

“Your parents and a donkey? Or….”

A vise squeezed his chest. “Of course I want my parents…. No. I want…” 

“A wife and son and a donkey. Or just the wife and son?”

The vise squeezed harder. He swallowed, trying to remove the blockage in his throat. “Nothing so specific as that,” came out quietly. Almost as quietly as the falling snow. “I want a little one, yes. Someday. Doesn’t have to be a son. Doesn’t even have to be born from my body. Just someone who calls me Baba or even XianGege or Shushu and feels as secure with me as I did with my own parents.”

“You want a family.”

Tears were threatening to spill. Baba, Mama…. I miss you so much. Why did you have to leave me behind? Why couldn’t you have stayed with me? I hope you’re proud of me, proud of who I’ve become. I hope you’re not ashamed of what I’m doing with Lan Zhan. He blinked a few times to stop his eyes from betraying him. “I want a family,” he agreed. 

Lan WangJi rested his forehead on Wei WuXian’s shoulder. “You deserve to have a family. People who love you unconditionally.” He sighed and looked up again. “You don’t have everything you need, then.”

Wei WuXian twirled, pressing his hand against Lan WangJi’s mouth. “I don’t need a family of my own. I have Shijie and you and A’Ling and ChengCheng. You’re all like my family, right? If I need to be around a little one, I can visit A’Yuan or A’Ling. Or there’s bound to be a few dozen little ones roaming Lotus Pier in the next few years. I can borrow one or six for an afternoon, I’m sure.” 

“Jiang WangYin is finding you a wife, Wei Ying. You won’t have to borrow someone else’s children. You’ll have your own soon enough.” Lan WangJi’s words were muffled by the hand, but came through steady and clear. 

“I don’t want to marry someone I don’t at least like. I can’t think of a single woman I like that much.” I want to marry someone I love. Looking into Lan WangJi’s golden eyes, he felt suddenly off kilter. As if the whole world tilted or stumbled while not moving at all. It was as if… reality had reoriented itself and was settling into place. Or maybe it was him that was tilting, or inside out or a mirror version of himself and yet… exactly as he’d always been. Except, he wasn’t the same man he’d been even a few breaths before, was he? He was someone completely new. 

He felt taller than trees, steadier than the mountains. More fragile than one of the snowflakes. As wispy as mist. His chest burned with the urge to yell his newfound knowledge to the world.

I want to marry someone I love, Lan Zhan.

I want to marry someone I love… Lan Zhan.

It was a secret. His own little secret. He pulled it out in the mornings when he woke to see his love meditating. He looked at it periodically during the day, holding it close to his chest, taking quick glances at the man who claimed his heart while they worked. He swallowed it down when they took each other in their arms at night. I love you, Lan Zhan.  

He could share the secret of course. But why? They were close to solving the Yin Tiger Seal problem. Once it was destroyed, they’d leave the mountain and return to their sects and responsibilities. And eventual wives.

Lan WangJi had never brought it up, but Wei WuXian had overheard him talking with Lan XiChen on more than one occasion since they had ensconced themselves on the mountain. Or rather, on those occasions, Lan XiChen was talking about a betrothal agreement, and Lan WangJi was doing his best to glare a hole in his brother’s head. 

So they’d probably both be married before summer was over, at the latest. Perhaps even before summer. 

What was the point in confessing when it would lead to exactly nothing but hurt for them both? Especially since Wei WuXian had a sneaking suspicion that Lan WangJi loved him in return. 

Their song… his song…. Lan WangJi had never said as much, but it sounded like a love song….  One written for Wei WuXian specifically, not a love song in general. He’d certainly never denied allegations that it was written for Wei WuXian. Even if he refused to give up its name.

It also made more sense that Lan Zhan would overcome his aversion to touching people to kiss a person he loved. It certainly fit his character better than him kissing for lust or curiosity. 

So Wei WuXian allowed Lan WangJi his secrets and held tight to his own. 

He suspected it slipped out, though…. When he found the least spicy vegetable in the dish for Lan Zhan to try. Or when Lan Zhan deftly removed the radishes from every dish and put them in his own bowl. Or when they were lying in bed together and he’d make sure the blankets were pulled up to the proper height: to Lan Zhan’s shoulders where the front was covered but the tops were clear. Or when he was working in their workshop and Lan Zhan wrapped a shawl around him. When they’d sit in silent meditation… holding hands. Or when he moved the brazier closer to the guqin table in their house because it sounded like Lan Zhan’s hands were shaking a bit from the cold. 

Or when they spent entire sichens, sometimes, just kissing. Sometimes lazily, sometimes like they were trying to eat each other. Their hands just holding them close, sometimes soothing back muscles. Times they spent just being .

I love you, Lan Zhan.

Chapter Text

“I’m going to purify the Burial Mounds before I destroy the rest of the Seal,” Wei WuXian announced after a fourth round of testing their spell against a small piece of it successfully obliterated every bit of yin energy. 

“Mmm.” 

“I need to convince Chang Wei to leave,” he muttered. “He’ll get caught up in the spell, even if you take him off the mountain. I promised I wouldn’t send him without his consent.”

“I will not leave while you’re purifying the Burial Mounds,” Lan WangJi sounded affronted. 

“You the generic you, not you the specific you, then. How do I convince him to move on?” Wei WuXian had had months to come up with an idea and had exactly nothing. When I thought I was going to die, I just wanted Mama to be with me. To hold my hand and sing me to sleep. I can promise him prayers to be reborn into a nice family. What good are prayers? He needs reassurances that leaving will send him to a better place rather than a return to the hell he’s always lived in. 

“Chang Wei,” he pleaded a few days later. “My little walking stomach…. It’s time.” The ghoul child pouted the most spectacular pout. Wei WuXian was honestly impressed at how a dead kid could get his entire body involved in that pout.

“Wei Laozu,” a Jin disciple asked. He was probably introduced when he arrived; there were so many juniors coming and going that learning their names was pointless. “Why don’t you just make it go?”

“You understand why there are ghosts and ghouls?” Wei WuXian didn’t really feel like lecturing; he was depressed at having to send his friend away.

“Of course, Wei Laozu. When someone dies with an unfulfilled need, they sometimes have sufficient yin energy for the soul to separate from the body and they stay on the earthly plane instead of moving on with the reincarnation cycle. The first step in removing ghosts and ghouls is to determine if those needs can be met.”

“The ghosts and ghouls on the Burial Mountain have been here for too long. There is no way we can fulfill their needs,” Wei WuXian responded. “All we can offer is the knowledge that their murderers are long dead. And hope that is sufficient to send them on.”

“That’s what we juniors have been doing over the last few months. Sending those we can on,” the Jin disciple seemed rather proud of his fellow juniors’ successes. 

“Yes. With Change Wei…”

The junior fidgeted a bit. “You can’t offer him what he wants? Even though he’s pretty sentient for a ghoul?”

Wei WuXian rested a hand on the ghoul’s head and rubbed it. “He wants what every abandoned and orphaned child wants: someone to care for them. He has that here. There’s no guarantee he’ll reincarnate to a loving family.” He sighed. “You need to go, Chang Wei. I have to finish cleaning up the Burial Mounds, and you can’t stay. Either way, you can’t stay.”

The Jin junior sat on the ground, legs criss-crossed. “Chang Wei. I’ll stay with you while Wei Laozu sends you on, okay? You won’t be alone, I promise.”

Wei WuXian started crying, without any sense that he should feel shamed for it, when the ghoul climbed into the Jin boy’s lap and snuggled tight. It was hard to play Rest when he felt like his heart was breaking, when it was hard to breathe past the lump in his throat. He lowered his flute and wiped his face. “Thank you for that.”

The Jin disciple shrugged. “I’m almost an orphan. My father has never acknowledged me. My mother sent me to Koi Tower to learn how to become a cultivator like him a couple of years ago. And then she died. We used to live with her sister. I don’t want to go back there. They don’t want me to come back, either. I have a half-brother in Koi Tower; he and his mother don’t want me there. Everyone says I’m there hoping to become my father’s spare heir. Except, my brother has a son already and my sister-in-law is pregnant with their second. Jin XiaoFuren is really nice, though. Nobody asked me if I want to be a sect leader! I don’t.”

“You’re Jin ZiXuan’s half-brother?” The kid didn’t look much like Jin GuangShan or Jin ZiXuan; there was a hint about him that reminded Wei WuXian of Meng Yao. The kid looked down instead of answering. Which was answer enough. “What’s your name?”

“Mo XuanYu.” It appeared a dam had opened. “I’m not a good cultivator. Everyone says I’m horrible at it. I only began learning and practicing when I arrived, but my weapons’ instructors say I have to spar against kids my age and then yell when I mess up because I don’t know all the moves! The same thing happens in all my classes! I’m placed with the other seventeen year olds when I can only read about as good as the eight year olds! My aunt didn’t want to spend money teaching me to read and do math and stuff, so everything I learned, either my mother taught me or I picked it up on my own. I can’t ride a horse. I’m not strong enough to fly on a sword. 

“I hate Koi Tower! I wish I could leave. But I don’t have anywhere else to go.” He slumped, suddenly exhausted.

Wei WuXian looked at the youngster thoughtfully. “I can find you a place if you really want to leave Koi Tower.”

“Really?”

“Really. I’m the Head Disciple at Lotus Pier.” Mo XuanYu’s eyes opened wide. “I’m basically in charge of all the juniors there. I can talk to my shijie, Jin XiaoFuren, about having you stay in Yunmeng for a few years. I’m sure she can get Jin ZiXuan to agree. 

“Also… YunmengJiang lost a lot of disciples during the Sunshot Campaign. Some of our new disciples come to us as little ones ready to learn. But some come as near adults, like you, who have a smattering of knowledge. Classes are set by ability, not by age, at the moment. I’m guessing that once we’re settled into being a Great Sect again, we will be more formal in when we accept someone as a disciple.”

“I can really go to YunmengJiang?” Wei WuXian nodded, smiling at the boy’s whole body quivering with excitement. Then… Mo XuanYu slunk back down to be as small as possible. “You don’t want me, Wei Laozu. I’m not… right.”

“Isn’t whether or not you’re right for YunmengJiang up to me to decide?”

“I’m a cut sleeve,” the boy whispered. “I like boys.”

“Oh.” Wei WuXian pretended to think. “That is a problem.”

“I know.”

“The problem is that all the girls in Yunmeng are going to think you’re cute and want to kiss you. You’re going to break too many hearts.” Wei WuXian kept his voice as troubled as possible, but couldn’t contain a grin.

Mo XuanYu looked up in shock. “Are you making fun of me?”

Wei WuXian reached out and tousled the boy’s hair. “Who you like is who you like. My concern as Head Disciple is only that you can learn cultivation and how much of a troublemaker you want to be. If anyone bullies you for liking boys, you can send them to me and I’ll make them swim laps until they’re too tired to care about you.”

Chapter Text

He decided to wait until the spring was fully settled in before purifying the Burial Mounds. The ten strongest cultivators and fifty greatest swordsmen and women along with juniors, retainers, servants, cooks, and sect and clan leaders moved to the mountain for the effort.

Wei WuXian drew an array on the ground, planting five flags evenly around the edges. He then walked the array, rewriting the lines with his blood. “You’re going to share your spiritual energy with your flag,” he instructed the first five. “The array will redirect the energy through to me and I will direct it into the Yin Tiger Seal.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Lan XiChen asked. 

“Yes.” Wei WuXian looked resolute. “Which is why Lan Zhan isn’t part of your group. He and Wen Daifu are going to patch me up after.” He wrapped his bleeding hand and stepped into the exact center of the array. “Begin.”

For a sichen, he took in the spiritual energy of five cultivators. Playing Chenqing, he spun it into energy the Yin Tiger Seal would permit, and then sent it out over as much of the Burial Mounds as he could reach. He played the ghosts and ghouls to their eternal sleep, settled the fierce corpses back into the soil and fast decomposition. 

Wen Qing kept a close eye on his body; she stopped the five as soon as she saw him faltering. Lan Zhan took him back to their house where a select group of juniors were allowed to share spiritual energy or to play healing songs

The fifty swordsmen and women followed the radius of the song’s effects, eliminating anything not already taken care of by the song. 

The following day, they moved to a new area on the mountain. Wei WuXian redrew his array, replanted his flags, and the next group of five fed him their energy. 

Day after day, they cleansed the land. For Wei WuXian and his ten cultivators, the work was grueling and intense. Despite eating at least double portions at meal times and sleeping half the afternoon away as well as the night, they all lost weight, and looked exhausted. 

“Wei Ying, you can’t continue at this pace,” Lan WangJi scolded his friend. “You need to rest. Take a break for a week.”

“No.” Wei WuXian was resolute. “I need to finish this. ShiJie has had her baby. I made myself a promise that I will go see them once the Burial Mounds is just a mountain again.”

“You can go see Jin XiaoFuren whenever you want. I’ll fly you there. What you’re doing… it’s not healthy for any of you.”

Wei WuXian placed a tired kiss against his love’s cheek. “I will rest once we’re done. I will recover my health completely before we destroy the Seal. I promise.” He snuggled into the warm body. “You can see what we’ve achieved already. The trees where we’ve cleansed are healthier. There’s proper grass. Birds and animals are returning. The air is cleaner, less oppressive.”

“And it will still be that way if you rest for a week,” Lan WangJi begged. 

“Another month,” Wei WuXian promised with a weak smile. “We should be done in a month.”

Worry was Lan WangJi’s constant companion. Watching his lover becoming more gaunt and fragile with each day that passed was…. Please. Rest. Please. For me. For you. A day? Can you take a break for just a day? You can hardly walk, Wei Ying. Your clothing doesn’t fit you. How do you expect to be able to hold your niece when you can barely hold your chopsticks? Using the Yin Tiger Seal was destroying his lover’s body if not his mind. He had black rings around his eyes and sunken cheeks. He almost looked as dead as the ones he dispersed. 

“Wen Daifu, Jiang ZongZhu, please….” He knelt, prostrating himself before them in the workshop. “Make him stop. He’s going to kill himself. Or destroy his Core.”

Wen Qing was sympathetic, but unswerving. “Don’t you think I would have made him stop if I could have? Aside from paralyzing him with my needles, what would you have me do? I have told him, daily, of the consequences. He can see and feel what he’s doing to himself.”

“Then paralyze him. Please. For a few days so he can…” I can't lose him. Not like this. Not ever. He’s too important to me. To you, too. 

“No,” Jiang WanYin interrupted. “He’d never forgive us. Do you think he listens to me? If he ever listened to me, he would have his original Core still spinning in his body.”

“Better for him to never forgive you than to lose his Core again!” Lan WangJi nearly shouted. 

“Lan Zhan…” Wei WuXian smiled weakly from where he stood in the doorway. “I won’t lose my Core. I promise.” Lan WangJi knew his face showed his disbelief. “I promise , Lan Zhan. I know what I’m doing. I know where the limit is. I’m walking the edge, yes. I promise I won’t step over it.”

“Swear it.”

“I swear.” Lan WangJi looked for dishonesty in his lover’s words or face. “Help me back to my bed?” he cajoled. “I’m very tired.” He smiled and leaned on the door frame. “Play for me? I always feel better after you play….”

Lan WangJi knew exactly what Wei WuXian was trying to do: distract him from his worries. 

Finally, the last day came. A wan Wei WuXian stood under the summer sun in the center of his final array surrounded by equally wan cultivators. Chenqing sang out as pure and powerful as she had on that first day of cleansing. Finally, Wei WuXian lowered his arms.

It was done. After seemingly endless weeks, the tragedies of a thousand years were ended. Those who had been killed on the mountain, or left to die… everyone, everything, was… at peace now. Sent to rejoin the reincarnation cycle. The soil, flora, fauna, air… everything was purified. “Thank you everyone,” Wei WuXian smiled weakly at the men and women standing outside the array. “Our work is done.”

“Finally,” Lan XiChen agreed. “Thank you Yiling Laozu.” He smiled an exhausted smile. “I’m all for sleeping for a week.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” Wen Qing agreed, already stepping through the array lines to grab Wei WuXian’s wrist. “Eat first. Lots of proteins and vegetables. Then sleep. You’ve earned it.”

“Aiyah, QingJie,” Wei WuXian whined. “I wanted ShiJie’s soup for dinner tonight.”

She tsked. “Lan WangJi is under firm instructions to as when he is allowed to fly you to Koi Tower.”

Chapter Text

A week. Lan WangJi refused to allow him to leave his bed to do anything more strenuous than use the latrine for three days. Then enforced a curriculum of writing letters and listening to music, of silent meditation, morning and afternoon naps, and eating. But now, he was packing up what he would need for a short visit to Koi Tower. 

He was still too thin, hadn’t fully recovered from the strain he’d placed on his body all spring. It was more than pleasant being held firmly in Lan Zhan’s arms as they flew. Looking down occasionally made him feel nauseated and weaker from fear of falling; keeping his eyes closed or focused on his love’s face alleviated that feeling. Lan Zhan would never let him fall.

Jiang YanLi was, somehow, even more beautiful than ever. “Meet Jin Ping, A’Xian,” she carefully handed over the cloth bundle containing a sleeping baby. “She’s been patiently waiting for her dajiu to visit.”

“She’s perfect, ShiJie,” Wei WuXian breathed. “As perfect as her mother. Hello Ping’Er,” he whispered. “I’m sorry I haven’t come to see you earlier.”

“I understand, XianXian.”

“No hogging my niece,” Jiang WanYin huffed, stomping into the room. “After the last few days, I need a cuddle.”

“Make your own baby,” Wei WuXian shifted Jin Ping away from the sect leader. “You can have her when my arms fall off.”

“What happened, A’Cheng,” Jiang YanLi asked.

He huffed and pouted. “I have received forty-three marriage proposals in the past three days. Eight of which I previously declined. Forty-three, Wei WuXian! Do you think you’re worth forty-three marriage proposals in three days?”

“Me?”

“Is there another person who cleansed the Burial Mounds in our sect? Yes, you. My hand hurts so much from writing the rejection letters.”

“Thank you,” Wei WuXian bowed slightly, careful to not jostle the precious bundle currently (and adorably) smacking her lips. 

“There’s something in the air. Lan ZongZhu told me he had eleven marriage proposals for himself and another thirty-two for Lan WangJi. We should exchange names, see if any of these eager fathers are just fishing and hoping to catch one of us.” He glared at his head disciple. “Give me my niece. It’s my turn.”

“Your turn?” Wei WuXian stuck his tongue out. “Esteemed sect leader, this poor disciple wouldn’t want to further injure your hand. This small one will continue to hold Ping’Er while you heal.”

Jiang YanLi smiled serenely and knelt down next to her younger son. “A’Ling… go comfort your xiaojiujiu. He’s sad he can’t hold your meimei just yet.” The toddler waddled to his uncle and held his hands to be picked up. “A’Cheng… how many did you receive?”

“None,” he bent to pick up the child and made faces at him while reminding his sister, “My betrothal is finalized, remember? And public.”

“Finalized?” Wei WuXian couldn’t contain his shock. “You’re getting married?”

“A’Jie negotiated it over the winter. Wen Qing and I will marry right before the Autumn Festival.”

“Wen Qing? Wen Daifu?” Wei WuXian was aware his voice was increasing in pitch. He couldn’t control it. “You’re marrying Wen Daifu?”

“It’s a good match,” Jiang YanLi stated. “The GusuWen need strong allies. Wen Qing will marry A’Cheng and Wen QiongLin is to marry Lan QiRen’s second cousin‘s eldest daughter. They are infatuated with each other. She’s a lovely girl. Wen QiongLin is stepping up as clan leader once Wen Qing moves to Lotus Pier.” She smiled, slightly evilly this time. “A’Cheng and Wen Daifu seem to be a good romantic match as well.”

“Jie,” he warned.

She ignored the warning. “My brother and Wen Daifu were wearing quite interesting matching necklaces the day after we finalized the betrothal agreement.”

“Matching necklaces?” Wei WuXian was confused.

“Shut up, Wei WuXian,” Jiang WanYin ordered while sporting a deepening blush. 

“Love bites,” Jiang YanLi’s grin was pure evil. “I’ve also heard rumors that they’ve shared rooms at inns while they were traveling to and from the Burial Mounds.”

“A’Jie!” Jiang WanYin yelled, waking Jin Ping up. “Now look at what you’ve done!”

“What I’ve done?” Jiang YanLi held out her arms for her now squalling infant. “I’m not the one yelling after being caught being indiscreet with my future spouse. I’m quite sure A’Xian has never worn a love bite necklace in public. He has enough shame to wear high collars to hide them.”

“ShiJie!” Wei WuXian tried, and failed, to not shout. “I’ve never had to wear high collars,” he grumbled. Because Lan Zhan has the sense to leave my neck alone and leave his marks where they can’t be seen by anyone else.

“I refuse to believe you’ve never received a love bite,” Jiang WanYin complained. 

“I need privacy,” Jiang YanLi changed the subject. “Ping’Er is hungry. Take XiaoLing to a garden and play with him.”

The two men and the boy obeyed promptly. “What’s a love bite?” Jin Ling asked.

“Something married adults do,” Jiang WangYin lied when Wei WuXian remained silent. Silent from not wanting to laugh in addition to not wanting to answer the child’s question without destroying his innocence. “It’s when you love someone and you pretend you want to eat them.”

“Oh,” the toddler seemed to think about it. “Like A’Ping eats from Mama? Love bite.” Wei WuXian nearly tripped over his own feet trying to not laugh.

Jiang WanYin gave his Head Disciple a dirty look. “You think it’s funny? Here’s another funny one: your own betrothal agreement is pretty much settled.”

“I don’t want to get married,” Wei WuXian made sure his voice was crystal clear with no room for a misunderstanding.

“Liar,” Jiang WanYing scoffed. “You can read it and make any suggestions once we return to Lotus Pier.”

Wei WuXian glared at his sect leader. “I don’t want to get married. Not now. Not to someone I don’t like.” I want to marry Lan Zhan. Just him. Not for alliances. Not for trade agreements. Not for politics. Just because we love each other. A noise made him look away from his sect leader. Lan Zhan…. I want to marry you. Just you.

Jiang WanYin hadn’t yet seen the younger jade. “Lotus Pier needs to increase the number of disciples. Bringing in outsiders to train has been problematic; we’ve had some good ones and some… not so good ones. You know the adage: we can either marry to increase our numbers or breed them.”

“That’s insulting, Jiang Cheng,” Wei WuXian frowned in the general direction of his sect leader. “Treating us disciples as if we are horses or something. Breeding stock.”

“You think my parents weren’t treating us like breeding stock? I’ve seen replies to letters both of them sent regarding our marriages. Mother was very interested in marrying you off to the second daughter in the MolingXi clan. Father preferred someone in Baling.”

“MolingXi?” Wei WuXian wrinkled his nose in distaste. “I’ve met one of the daughters, I think. She’s almost old enough to be my mother.”

“That’s the one,” Jiang WanYin grinned. “Oh,” he suddenly noticed Lan WangJi standing under a tree in the garden. “HanGuang-Jun,” he bowed. 

“Sandu Shengshou,” the jade bowed back. “Wei Ying. Jin Gongzi.”

Wei WuXian opened his mouth to greet his love, and yawned instead. Jiang WanYin gave him a disgusted look. “HanGuang-Jun? Would you mind escorting my Head Disciple to his room for a nap? It appears meeting his new niece has exhausted him.”

“Ling’Er doesn’t need a nap. Ling’Er is big!” the toddler announced.

“Xian’Er doesn’t need a nap, either,” Wei WuXian agreed and yawned again. 

Lan WangJi sighed. “Come to my room to meditate, then. I will play for you.” 

Wei WuXian gave him a dirty look, but agreed. He might be persuaded to take a nap if Lan Zhan offered the right incentives.

Chapter Text

Lan WangJi played whatever music decided to come out of his fingers. It was slow and soothing and had Wei Ying snuggled under the blankets looking sleepily up at him, despite the earlier protestations of not needing a nap.

“Lan Zhan… I don’t know how I’m going to sleep. I’m so used to having you in my bed. Or at least in the room.”

“I’m here.”

“You’re here now . What about tonight? What about the rest of the nights? What am I supposed to do when I need you to touch me? When I need to kiss you? Or touch you? Or just… I don’t know… smell you? What am I supposed to do when it’s some strange woman lying in my bed? I don’t want to marry for the good of the Sect. I want to marry for myself.”

Lan WangJi kept playing. I don’t want you marrying some strange woman, either. It should be us. We’re so good together. Whether it’s playing music or cultivating or going on night hunts…. 

“Tell me the name,” Wei WuXian ordered through yet another yawn. “At least give me that before we have to part.”

With a start, Lan WangJi realized he was playing their song. WangXian . It would be so easy to say it, so easy to end the teasing banter they had over its name. I can’t. He looked over at his lover, silver eyes closed, breathing even. You’re asleep again. His eyes were still looking bruised from the ordeal. I can’t tell you. This secret is all I will have once…. Once you leave me to get married. It hurt. Like the pain/pressure from a massive boulder sitting right over his sternum, squashing his stomach, making him feel nauseated. 

I hate her. I hate the one who will have the right to stand at your side. I hate that she will have the right to sleep in your bed. Raise children with you. I hate that she will have all of you when I…. When it should be me.

I want to be the one at your side. I want to be the one you laugh with, cry with. I want to be the one sitting up with you all night because one of our little ones is not feeling well or is out on their first unsupervised night hunt. I want to be the one who holds you while you’re sleeping. I want to be the only one who knows what you look like when you’re finishing. I want to be the only one who knows how to pleasure you. As I want you to be the only one who knows how to pleasure me. I want to wake up to see the dawn with you, and then put you to bed because you spent the night working instead of sleeping. I want to try to cultivate to immortality with you. 

I want you to love me the way I love you. He’d never thought those words before. Now that they had come out into the open? I love you, Wei Ying. It felt… like he was finally a complete being, acknowledging this truth.

When did I fall in love? Thinking back all the way to their earliest interactions, he couldn't pinpoint a moment where he felt one way and then another. 

Other than that first encounter on the wall, that was. Before he was a steady, calm and collected sixteen year old and after he was the exasperated one who had to keep an eye on an unruly guest disciple.

Did I fall in love with you that night? Did it even matter? I love you. That’s what mattered. That’s all that mattered.

Marry me, Wei Ying. You should marry me.

Chapter Text

“Kneel,” Jiang YanLi ordered with a stern frown on her face. Jin Ping was fussing in her arms; Wei WuXian didn’t think his martial sister’s obvious frustration was because of the baby. Not when they were summoned like transgressors and immediately directed to kneel. “You two are being childish. I had thought you were bright young men. Moping like little children? Both of you? This ends now.” She sat on the couch, and carefully turned Jin Ping's head up to burp her. “Wei WuXian…. Do you honestly think my brother and I would choose a spouse for you that you didn’t already approve of? Do you honestly think we would consider the Sect’s needs above your own wants and needs?”

“ShiJie…” he whined. 

“And you, HanGuang-Jun…. You’re almost worse than my shidi. Why would you ever think your brother would choose a random spouse for you without discussing it with you first?” Lan WangJi’s ears turning pink was his only response. “Honestly? I am so disappointed in both of you! Practically the whole jianghe knows how you feel about each other! It amazes me that fathers are still sending marriage proposals to you two. What are they thinking? How can any decent father think, ‘I want my daughter to marry a man who is completely infatuated with another man.’ Poor girls. It’s obvious that you love each other just from the way you look at each other. Those of us who have been unfortunate enough to see you sneaking kisses?” At Wei WuXian’s shocked look, she sighed. “Yes, I’ve seen you kissing. More than once. 

“In case my words aren’t already clear, your betrothal agreements are to each other. Betrothal agreements between two Sect heirs must be written carefully which is why you aren’t married already.”

“Two?” Wei WuXian blinked at his sister. “Who’s the other Sect heir?”

“Wei WuXian…. There are only four of us in this room. Who else can be the heir to YunmengJiang?” she snapped. “Especially considering that I’m already married, and Ping’Er wasn’t born when we started negotiations.”

“How should I know who is next in line to be the Sect leader?” Wei WuXian tried to understand. Tried and failed. He was still struggling to comprehend that his shijie had seen him, them, kissing . How embarrassing!

“You signed the papers years ago accepting the honor,” JiangYanLi was frowning again. “Your memory is such a mess, XianXian. It has more holes in it than a fishing net.”

“I did?” Wei WuXian wracked his brain trying to remember. 

Lan WangJi rose smoothly to his feet. “Please excuse us, Jin XiaoFuren.” He grabbed Wei WuXian’s hand and practically dragged him out of the room. The first empty room they came across, he slammed the door shut behind them, locked it, and cast silencing talismans at the walls. “Wei Ying…” He was breathing hard and fast, “Wei Ying… do you?”

“Do I what?” Wei WuXian was still trying to make sense of what his martial sister had said. Marriage. Heir. Lan Zhan. Kissing. Marriage. “Did… did ShiJie really say the betrothal agreements are for us? Are we really to be married?”

“Is that what you want?” Lan WangJi’s golden eyes were fierce.

“I want to marry you, Lan Zhan. I dreamed of making a life with you when I was fifteen…. Lan Zhan, I want to night hunt with you. I want yours to be the last face I see at night. I want yours to be the first face I wake up to. I want to sleep with you. That kind of sleeping. I told you I want to save my body for my wife? That’s yours, husband not wife of course, but… It’s for you. My body. My heart. My soul. All yours. I want… I want you to be mine…. Zhiji. Husband. Mine. My husband. Do you want to marry me, too?”

“Only you.” Lan WangJi wrapped his arms around Wei Ying. “It’s only ever been you. Marry me, Wei Ying. Be mine.”

“Yes,” Wei WuXian squeezed his love. “Yours. Of course I’m yours. I love you, Lan Zhan.” Shouldn’t we be kissing? “Kiss me. I need you to kiss me,” he demanded.

He was surrounded. A hard wall pressing against his back. A hard body pressing against his front. Arms like iron bands wrapped around his sides. He squeezed his own arms tightly around Lan Zhan’s neck and upper back, and lost himself to their kiss. Hard, hot, wet, insistent, urgent. “Lan Zhan,” he moaned when his love moved away from his mouth, planting wet kisses against his jawline and neck.

“I’m here. I’ll always be here from now on.” A gentle bite in the curve of his neck had him gasping. “Wei Ying… when will you grant me my rights as your husband? With or without bows and contracts, I am your husband, and you are mine.”

“Your rights?” Wei Ying shivered as his sash slithered down to pool at his feet.

“My rights.” His robes followed the sash, leaving him in his shirt and trousers. “My rights to fully take you into my bed.” There was a fumbling at his waist and his trousers slipped down. “I want you to fully be mine.” Lan Zhan dropped to his knees and enveloped the throbbing cock with his mouth. Wei Ying wasn’t sure who moaned louder; he was quite sure he moaned longer. Hot wet heat… heaven. Wei Ying felt like his soul was soaring towards heaven. Pulling off, Lan Zhan continued, “I want to fill you. I want to fuck you until you scream.” The dirty talk inflamed Wei Ying’s senses. Yes. You can. Fuck me. Lan Zhan’s head moved back onto the wet cock in front of his face and bobbed back and forth slowly, all the while looking up at his love. “Finish in my mouth,” he begged after Wei Ying’s hips pressed his arousal more deeply. 

Wei Ying moaned more, trying to keep some restraint, and not shove his cock into his love’s throat. Warm hands were cupping his ass, slowly spreading his cheeks apart. “Lan Zhan…. What?”

“Let me, please.” Lan Zhan sounded hoarse and so very aroused. “Let me touch you. Please.” 

Wei Ying’s head thunked against the wall as he was stimulated front and back. Lan Zhan’s lips were pressing against his groin at the same time a finger was brushing up and down against his hole. “I told you, Lan Zhan… I’m yours. Completely and absolutely. Every part of me,” he stuttered through heaving breathing. He released with a groan, legs trembling, hands grasping at air instead of hair. “Here?” he asked when he had sufficient control over his body again. “Are you going to do me now?” The room was empty of anything resembling a soft horizontal surface. Or vertical, for that matter. He was aware that beds weren’t absolutely necessary for sex; he’d read enough spring books to know that the only requirement was a study surface to lay on or lean against. He was old enough to want a soft surface for his body to rest on when they became one body. 

“Not here,” Lan Zhan appeared to be of the same mind. “Tonight? Come to my room.” This kiss tasted bitter and salty. 

“Are you sure?” Wei Ying smiled his teasing smile. “Will HanGuang-Jun’s spotless reputation survive?”

“HanGuang-Jung’s reputation is already spotted,” Lan Zhan deadpanned. “As were we.”

Wei Ying burst into laughter. “Lan Zhan… I adore you the most when you make jokes.” They left the room together holding hands, ignoring the looks the Jin disciples gave them.

A Jiang disciple found them before long. “Wei Chianbei, HanGuang-Jun… Jin ZongZhu requests your presence in the Cold Room.”

“What happened?” Wei WuXian asked.

“Apparently, Jin GuangYao’s body has been found.”

Lan WangJi exchanged a look with his husband. “I didn’t know he was missing,” Wei WuXian stated baldly. 

The Cold Room was cold. Jin GuangYao’s body was lying on a table, looking rather worse than he had when alive. Half his face was eaten off and decomposition had set in. Jin ZiXuan asked for the room to be protected against outside observation.

“I will acknowledge this to be my half-brother to everyone outside this room,” the Jin sect leader stood at the body’s head. “I just need to know that it is Jin GuangYao. When he left Koi Tower, he left all of his sect belongings behind. And now he’s wearing our uniform?”

Surprisingly, it was Nie HuaiSang who stepped up to start examining the clothing. “It’s a good forgery. But a forgery all the same. The silk is inferior and mixed with cotton. The dye is inconsistent. See here and here?” He pointed to various locations on the body. “I assume the Jin have spells woven into your cloth? The Nie certainly do. These robes do not.”

Nie MingJue scoffed, “Is this how you spend your time when you’re supposed to be practicing with your saber?”

Nie HuaiSang straightened his back to stand at his full height. “I like clothing, pretty fans, birds, and information. Right now two of those are far more important than sabers. A saber can’t tell you if this body is Jin GuangYao’s. But I can.”

Jin ZiXuan silenced Nie MingJue with a sharp look. “Nie Gongzi, we appreciate your talents. Lan XiChen… is there any spirit attached to the corpse?”

Lan XiChen shook his head. “WangJi can confirm by playing his qin. Preliminary inspections show the soul has completely departed the body. Which is to be expected in the body of a cultivator.”

Jin ZiXuan shook his head. “I don’t believe my father had the soul calming rites performed on my half-brother.”

Nie HuaiSang had moved on to inspecting the body, raising its arms and turning the head carefully around. “It’s not Jin GuangYao,” he stated with certainty. “DaGe chopped Meng Yao’s hand off right at the wrist; not only is the left forearm noticeably shorter than the right, the stump is not nearly as healed as it should be. So… unless the stump became infected in the last half year or so and it needed to be cut further?” He shrugged. “Not that that is important. An arm can be recut; moles don’t lie. Meng Yao and I used to put each other’s hair up before I left for Cloud Recesses. He has a mole in between the index and middle fingers on his right hand and a triangle of moles on the back of his left ear lobe. This body has neither.”

“Not my brother.” Lan WangJi wasn’t sure if the carefully enunciated and emotionless words were relief or fear. 

Lan XiChen added, “Although someone certainly wants us to believe that it is.”

Wei WuXian leaned over the corpse’s face to examine the marks left on it. “Someone who isn’t very knowledgeable about yao wants us to believe it. See here?” He pointed to various marks. “These are made from the teeth of a wangliang.”

“A wangliang?’ Nie MingJue asked. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely,” Wei WuXian affirmed. 

“I’ve never heard of a wangliang biting a face,” Nie MingJue frowned. “It eats livers.”

Wei WuXian smiled. It wasn’t a pleasant looking smile. “Exactly. I guess someone held a skull or jaw to the body and made those marks? Someone wants us to believe that this is Jin GuangYao but doesn’t know enough to really fool us.”

“A kid?” Jin ZiXuan looked up, shocked. “Do you think it’s a kid doing this? If so….” he paused and took a deep breath. “I received reports of a demonic cultivator trying to make a name for himself. The reports say that he’s not even eighteen. Xue Yang, courtesy ChengMei. He’s rumored to have murdered an entire clan because their leader slighted him. The murders rivaled the techniques you used on the Wen soldiers when you chased after Wen Chao.”

“A demonic cultivator?” It was Wei WuXian’s turn to look shocked. Lan WangJi held his hand just that more tightly, to let his husband know he wasn’t alone. 

Lan XiChen frowned. “A young demonic cultivator trying to fool you into thinking this body is Jin GuangYao’s….”

Lan WangJi finished his brother’s thoughts. “Xue ChengMei is working with Jin GuangYao.”

Nie HuaiSang stepped back. “Give me a copy of the reports about Xue Yang. I’ll get some eyes and ears looking out for him.”

“That’s too dangerous,” Wei WuXian stated. “If he’s using yin energy to cultivate, he needs to be assessed and executed if necessary. I’ll go after him.”

“No,” Jin ZiXuan declined the offer. “If the reports are accurate, he wants your Tiger Seal as a backup to having access to you. My wife will severely injure me if I allow you to put yourself into another dangerous position. Especially if he’s working with my half-brother. A demonic cultivator and a genius?” With a quick glance at the other sect leaders in the room, he announced, “We can put together a coalition of our best cultivators to go after him, apprehend him if possible, and take him out if not.”

Lan WangJi looked at his husband’s mulish expression. “Wei Ying… you can be the bait that draws him out. We can secure a place, and announce you’re there. If he wants you, he’ll come.”

“If he wants me?” Wei WuXian gave a measured look back. “It is best that I be the one to apprehend him. You, none of you, really understand what we can do with yin energy. You saw only a minuscule part of what I was actually capable of. I hid a lot of what I learned during those three months and afterwards. If Xue Yang has learned even a fraction of what I know? We know Jin GuangYao had access to my notes when I was recuperating in the Cloud Recesses…. How much has he passed on to Xue Yang? Or worse… what if he’s learned how to do things I didn’t? 

“No. Your best will die in a fight. I’ll go alone.”

Lan WangJi felt his soul slipping away from him. “Wei Ying… you cannot face him alone. You cannot fight him with yin energy; it will destroy your new Core. Especially if you use the Seal. You’re not strong enough yet to face him with yang energy. At least let me fight this battle with you.”

Wei WuXian’s face firmed with stubbornness. “I can handle one demonic cultivator.”

“And I can handle Jin GuangYao,” Lan WangJi was just as stubborn.

“We can reduce the number of cultivators in the coalition,” Jin ZiXuan interrupted. “One from each of the major Sects.”

“No.” Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian spoke at the same time. “Wei Ying and I will go alone,” Lan WangJi asserted with a warning look to his husband. We will do this together. 

Wei WuXian shook his hand free. “No.”

“There is no way you’re going after a demonic cultivator alone!” Jiang WanYin spoke harshly, Zidian sparking on his hand. “Four is barely sufficient as it is.”

“Four means two dead unnecessarily,” Wei WuXian spat. “I won’t be responsible for their lives.” He left without bowing. Lan WangJi followed, trying to look like he was strolling and not hurrying.

“Lan Zhan… You should stay here.”

“No.” If you want to be stubborn about this, you’ve met your match. I can be just as stubborn.

“I can’t lose you!” Wei WuXian hissed. “If I die… at least I’m dying protecting the world against the abomination I created. I… I won’t let my work take you.”

“Wei Ying is not dying, either. Won’t allow it.” Wei Ying’s laughter was bitter and sad and hurting. Lan Zhan ignored that they were in public and yanked his husband into his embrace. “Lan Zhan can’t live without Wei Ying. Together. We live or die together.”

Wei WuXian snuggled into the embrace. “Alright then. Together. Let’s pack up and go get those bastards.”

Chapter Text

Lan WangJi knew it was a mistake to allow his husband to go pack on his own. Wei Ying… where did you go? The room looked like a windstorm had blown through it. Obviously, Wei WuXian had only packed the absolute necessities for the fight and left the rest of his belongings in messy heaps.

Jiang WanYin looked around the room, Zidian a physical whip, sweeping and flashing. “Where the Hell did he go?”

“To kill Xue ChengMei,” Lan WangJi guessed. 

“We don’t even know where they are.”

“Yin Tiger Seal.”

The Jiang sect leader swore. “He’s going to use that thing to search out yin energy? Fuck. I’m going to break his legs into thousands of pieces when I find him. Be ready to leave in half a sichen; I’m sending out a search party after him.”

Lan WangJi nodded his agreement. Wei Ying… stay safe. I will be with you soon.

Wei WuXian staggered as the teleportation spell dropped him off. Exhaustion and yin energy were not a good combination. The desert heat hit him hard. He’d scoped out this place before the move to the Burial Mounds. It was far enough from the sect lands that no one would immediately think to look for him here. He fixed the wide brimmed bamboo hat more firmly on his head. “Time for you to go,” he informed the Yin Tiger Seal. “If Xue Yang wins? There’s no way I’ll allow him access to you.” He placed the Seal on the sand and began sketching out a containment array. “Actually, no one else should have access to you. I trust Lan Zhan with you. But no one else. If I had known how to tie you to me, it would be a different story, of course. My death would leave you inert. Which would be a good thing. But as you are?” He used a knife to slice open his palm and walked the array again, drawing it in his blood. “As you are… you’re too dangerous to leave to chance.” He stepped out of the array and activated it. Then he drew a second containment array; he was going to destroy the seal, not himself along with it. He stood in the center, and activated that one. 

His body was already weak from purifying the Burial Mounds. And made weaker from the desert heat and the teleportation spell. He ate a piece of dried meat for physical energy and began the spell to destroy the Seal. 

The explosion was huge. Even contained within the parameters of the array, it was huge . The sheer volume of yin energy released was awe inspiring. It’s almost a shame there’s no witnesses. Historians will have to make up what this was like. I doubt their imaginations are sufficient to the task. The actuality is far beyond what even I imagined what it would look like and I saw the smaller pieces destroyed. He dismissed his own protection array, but left the one up around where the Yin Tiger Seal had once been. “Shelter and sleep,” he reminded himself. “And food.” He pulled out a small tent from a pouch at his waist and set it up. “Protection from the elements is important.” Once inside, he plastered a talisman to the side of the tent; it would cool the air during the heat of the day and warm it during the cold night. From another pouch he pulled out some food and began replenishing his energy. Before sleeping, he sketched out a few talismans he might need…. 

An explosion this big might attract the attention of the wrong sorts of people. As drained as he was, he was going to need to cheat a bit to fight them off.

His sleep was fitful; he woke himself up, screaming from nightmares, multiple times. Lan Zhan…. I need you. Why didn’t I bring you along? 

He knew why. If something went wrong with destroying the Seal…. If one or both of the containment arrays broke, he’d be forced to destroy the Seal with no protections. And that was a suicide mission. His body would be so thoroughly destroyed there wouldn’t be anything left to bury. He couldn’t allow his husband to see him die any more than he could allow his husband to be the one to destroy the Seal. 

So instead, he was trying to sleep, alone, in a tent in a desert. 

He woke to the smell of a fire and something vaguely bloody/metallic/iron. Crawling out of the tent, he saw a youth wandering around the outside of the Seal’s protection array. “Good morning,” he said politely.

“Good morning, Shizun,” the youth answered with a quick bow. “Are you hungry? I made tea. No one else drinks my tea, so I won’t be offended if you decline.”

“Xue Yang, I presume?” Wei WuXian walked over to the kettle steaming gently on a camp table set near the fire. A quick look inside gave him an idea of why the air smelled like blood. I’m glad I haven’t eaten, he thought as his stomach rolled upon seeing the severed tongue lying in the bloody water. Disgusting.

“Yes, Shizun,” the youth smiled. “This one is called Xue Yang, courtesy ChengMei. It is an honor to meet you.”

“An honor?” Wei WuXian retrieved his own kettle and some water to make a proper pot of tea. He decided to ignore the child claiming him as his master; there wouldn’t be any sort of disciple/master relationship. There was also no need to antagonize someone who drank human tongue tea before it was necessary. Wei WuXian surreptitiously slid his hand into his sleeve, ensuring his talismans were easy to reach.

Xue Yang strolled back to his table and poured himself another cup of ‘tea’. “I am an ardent admirer of your work, Shizun. Your notes are difficult to read, since you left out at least half of the instructions, but once I figured out what was missing…. You are absolutely brilliant, Shizun; it is an incredible honor to walk behind you.”

“No one was supposed to read my notes,” Wei WuXian muttered as he measured out tea leaves. “It was very… inappropriate… for Meng Yao to steal them.” It was a guess.

“Meng Yao? Oh. You mean Jin GuangYao. Yes, I suppose him stealing your notes was rather inappropriate, wasn’t it? It’s not like he actually stole them, though…. He just borrowed them for a shichen and had them put back. 

“Shizun? Why did you destroy it?” Xue Yang was looking back at the intact protection array. “Just think of what we could accomplish with it….” He sighed. “I don’t suppose you have notes on how to make another one? Jin Gongzi was unable to find any writings regarding how to make it, not even an analysis of the materials.”

Wei WuXian poured near boiling water over his tea leaves. “I didn’t write about how I made it. Or what I made it from. If you want to make another one, you’ll need to forge a sword out of the metal of a falling star, fight with it in a war, killing thousands of the enemy, then leave it surrounded by the dead and dying in the belly of a XuanWu, thus filling it with resentful energy for a thousand years.”

“Does it have to be a XuanWu? Or will any near immortal beast do?” 

Wei WuXian blinked at the kid. Such arrogance. Does he think he can cultivate to immortality using yin energy? Or does he plan to cultivate with both yin and yang and hope to stay sane? Relatively sane? “Do you expect to live long enough to find out?”

Xue Yang grinned, exposing fang-like teeth. “Is Shizun planning on murdering this disciple?”

“Do you deserve death? I heard you murdered an entire clan.”

“They deserved it,” Xue Yang sat at his table and sipped his tea. “The father injured me,” he held up a hand showing a missing pinky finger. “How much is my finger worth, Shizun? Ten cultivators’ lives? Ffty? How many children add up to the value of an adult? How many mortals add up to the life of a single cultivator?”

“You’re insane,” Wei WuXian whispered. 

“Ah,” Xue Yang leaned back, resting his weight on his palms. “Shizun does want to murder this disciple. Such a shame.” He sighed long and hard. “I can’t let you do that, you know.”

Wei WuXian flicked a talisman at the younger man, who easily brushed it away. He wasn’t as lucky avoiding the second one. “What have you done?” he shrieked.

“A binding talisman,” Wei WuXian shrugged and stood up. “Modified especially for you, of course.”

“Modified? How?” Xue Yang struggled. “I didn’t see anything like this in Jin Gongzi’s papers!”

Wei WuXian walked over to his tent. “It couldn’t have been in Meng Yao’s notes. I made it last night just in case you decided to show up.” He ducked into the tent and emerged with Suibian. “This one immobilizes… just about everything, really. It prevents you from moving your limbs, like a typical binding talisman. It has the added benefits of restricting access to spiritual energy, which I’m sure you’re also familiar with?” Xue Yang looked like he might be trying to nod yes while still obviously trying to escape. “My own special addition is just for you: it disallows use of resentful energy as well. 

“I hope you make better decisions in your next life.”

“You can’t just kill me!” Xue Yang shrieked.

“I’m afraid I can.” Wei WuXian drew Suibian from its sheath. “It was never going to be a fair fight… you must have known that. I’m not strong enough at the moment to face you in combat, so any duel would be horribly one sided. Unfortunately for you, I can’t allow you to win. You’re not strong enough to face me using resentful energy if I chose to further damage my Core by fighting you with that. Lan Zhan would be very angry if I deliberately did anything to hurt my Core. Since I’m going to marry him, making him angry with me isn’t really in my best interest. It’s going to be bad enough when I get back to Koi Tower and have to listen to his lecture about leaving him behind. So… all that’s left for me is a rather simple trick you could have no defenses against.” His aim was true: the boy’s head fell neatly onto the sand. 

He thought about apologizing. Xue Yang was more child than adult. Killing children was wrong. So very wrong. 

Xue Yang was a psychotic killer even without resentful energy. Nothing short of death was going to stop him. There was no chance of rehabilitation or repentance. He would only go more and more insane as the use of yin energy took over his mind. 

It was a mercy killing, really. He crawled back into his tent to find some rations to break his fast with. Once his stomach stopped complaining, he sent a bunny to his husband. I’m safe. Destroyed the Yin Tiger Seal. Xue Yang stopped by for a visit. I cut it short. He won’t be a problem in the future. He was working with Meng Yao. I’ll head back to Lotus Pier in a day or two. I need to replenish my energy for the trip back. 

The white bunny that appeared in his hand a short while later stated: where are you? I’ll come get you. Help you bury the body.

Wei WuXian laughed softly. “I adore you, Lan Zhan. You know me too well.” His own bunny gave directions to his camp. “Nap time. I’m exhausted.” He slid into his bedroll and tried to sleep. It came in fits and starts, dreams full of nightmares. He woke to the scent of sandalwood and arms almost crushing him to death. “Lan Zhan… husband….” he sighed, content and happy and satisfied with the whole world.

Chapter Text

“Don’t do that again,” Lan Zhan ordered. “Together means together. Not Wei Ying going off on his own.”

“I can’t risk you… you have to know that. You’re more important to me than my own life. I will do everything to keep you safe. And alive.”

Lan WangJi’s whole body shook ‘no’. “If Wei Ying is not safe, neither is Lan Zhan. What kind of life are you condemning me to if you die? How can I live without you?”

Wei WuXian wanted to say ‘sorry’. An apology he didn’t mean, though? Lan Zhan didn’t deserve insincere words. “I love you,” he finally whispered. I won’t promise to not leave you behind, safe. I can’t promise to let you walk into danger with me. You… Zhiji… you’re everything good in my life. I will keep you from harm as much as I can. “I needed to destroy the Seal before Xue Yang, or another of Meng Yao’s minions, could get his hands on it.”

“What if he had come while you were in the process of destroying it? What would you have done then?”

Wei WuXian let his hands run up and down his husband’s back. “I put myself in a protection array. Nothing can get to me in it.”

“Wei Ying…” Lan Zhan rolled them so he was lying half on top of his husband. Golden eyes were fierce and piercing and glittering with want and need and….

“Oh.” You’re hard. In an instant, Lan Zhan had pushed him upright, until he was kneeling over Lan Zhan’s waist. 

“You owe me my wedding night. Strip.”

“Here?” Wei Ying could feel his voice’s pitch rising. “You don’t want to wait until we get back to civilization and a real bed?”

“No. Wei Ying promised to give me my rights as his husband. I will take them. Now. Strip.” Without waiting for a response, Lan Zhan made quick work of removing his husband’s belt and untying his robes. “Wei Ying…” sounded vaguely threatening.

“Yes, Lan Zhan.” Wei Ying untied his shirt’s ties and stood up to remove his trousers. His eyes were glued to his husband’s torso as Lan Zhan quickly removed his own clothing. 

Strong hands yanked him back down to lay on the bedding, Lan Zhan settling between his legs. “Wei Ying…. Can I? I want to be inside you.” 

“Yes.”

Lan Zhan fumbled with his sleeves, eventually pulling out a small jar. “Wei Ying… I’ve never… have you?”

Wei Ying nearly yelled, “Of course not! Who would I even do it with?”

Lan Zhan’s face reddened. “I meant… by yourself. I’ve never… tried… it… on myself.”

“Oh.” Wei Ying’s face was almost an exact match to his lover’s. “No.” Sex had always seemed like an impossibility between them. He was destined to marry a woman and he refused to completely dishonor her. What was the point in exploring how penetrative sex with a man worked? 

Lan Zhan swallowed, hard. “I am aware that oil eases the way. And you need to be stretched a bit first. And Wen Daifu mentioned cleaning.” He reached over to his robes and pulled out a qiankun pouch from a sleeve. “I researched. But….” He upended the pouch and a dozen or so books fell out. “They aren’t the right kind of books.”

Wei Ying opened one of the books to see a graphic picture of a man penetrating another man. His eyebrows raised to a comical level. “Lan Zhan? I suppose it’s not surprising you bought these kinds of books. You are the type to research before doing something new. You look so wholesome and good…. Who would think you carry cut sleeve porn around with you!” He flipped carefully through the book, reading a few sentences here and there and doing more than glimpsing at some of the pictures. 

Lan Zhan sighed. “They’re all pretty similar. Except for this one,” he removed one of the books and shoved it back in the pouch. 

“What’s up with that one?” Wei Ying grinned and casually reached over to take the pouch; Lan Zhan yanked it behind his back.

“The protagonist likes to hurt his lovers. He takes them whether they’re willing or not.”

He rapes his lovers? And you bought a book about it? Wei Ying slowly pulled his hand back. “Lan Zhan… is that something you… might like?” His lover didn’t answer; his blush deepening answered for him. Huh. We talked about pain and pleasure that time in the Burial Mounds before he tied my hands to the bed posts. There’s a difference between inflicting pain and pleasure and rape, though.

Isn’t there?

Lan Zhan’s refusal to answer was an answer of sorts. Is it rape if I let him? A ripple of want and curiosity slid through his belly and wandered over to his back, traveling up and down his spine. He’d enjoyed being held down…. He’d enjoyed being bitten and seeing Lan Zhan’s marks on his body. It was true that there could be pleasure in pain. And it was something his husband wanted. He would give his lover anything, everything. “Lan Zhan… you can do it. Do me,” he amended. “I want it.”

Lan Zhan’s face showed a mixture of want and denial. “I won’t hurt you for our first time.” Unspoken was a promise that pain would come in the future? 

“Then… let’s learn together,” Wei Ying punctuated his offer with a kiss.

Cleaning turned out to be a challenge. Simply washing the body’s exterior wouldn’t affect the insides of it. They tried ignoring the problem; that was stomach churning. The most obvious solution was to use the latrine and then somehow insert first soapy water and then fresh water into the body (and wiggle around?) to clean it. However, they were in a desert, and there was insufficient water. Nor did they have a way to get water into the body. They’d need something like a water skin that they could press inside? But then that water skin wouldn’t be good for drinking out of afterwards. Or one could do a handstand and use some sort of reed? Assuming, of course, that there were even reeds growing in a dessert.

Wei WuXian finally stopped thinking about washing their insides and started thinking about how to simply remove the stuff to somewhere else. A modified teleportation spell seemed to do the trick. 

As for stretching, they decided to work on that together. At least for this, they had some visuals to refer to. One of the books showed small pictures of the protagonist inserting an increasing number of fingers into his partner’s ass until he was able to fit his entire hand inside. Wei Ying had paled a bit at that image, eyes flicking between the book, his own hand, and Lan Zhan’s much larger hand. “We’re not going to do that tonight, right?”

Lan Zhan looked at his husband’s hand, and then down at his naked lap. “I’m still not sure how you’re going to fit….” He was doubly unsure when face to ‘face’ with the small chrysanthemum bud. 

They were laying on their sides, face to groin, oil dripping everywhere. Lan Zhan shivered as a warm, greasy finger circled his rim and started pressing in. He watched in awe as his own finger pressed against the little pinkish-brown bud and forced it to open a bit. Heat surrounded him, sucked his finger in further. He pulled it out again and felt his lover’s full body shudder and heard a weak, “Oh, fuck.” He pushed his finger back in, steadily, until it could go no further. He couldn’t stop his own shudder when the finger pressing into his own ass started wiggling around. “Do you like it, Lan Zhan?”

He opened his mouth to speak and the words wouldn’t come out. So instead, he dipped his head down and took his lover’s cock into his mouth and hummed. Opening Wei Ying up after that was almost too easy. His husband was almost too blissed out to pay attention to an increasing number of fingers stretching out his hole. Pretty quickly, he had flopped onto his back and Lan Zhan had flipped around so he was laying in between his love’s legs. Four fingers seems good enough? He seems pretty open? And not in pain? He kneeled up, oiled his cock up, and found his voice. “Wei Ying… I’m going to come in now.”

“Alright,” his love slurred.

Lan Zhan threaded his husband’s legs over his arms and started pressing inside. “Fuck,” he whispered at the new sensations. It was hot and tight and slightly slippery and felt so amazing. “Wei Ying…. Thank you.” He had never felt anything like this in his entire life. No hand or mouth could compare. He began thrusting, hips moving without a conscious decision and the sensations were even better. Below him, he was slightly aware of his lover making soft, forced ‘huh’ sounds. He heard, but wasn’t able to pay attention to Wei Ying’s words: “Yes, like that.” “Slower.” “There? Can you… that feels so….” Being punched in the shoulder brought him to more awareness of what was going on around him. “What?”

Wei Ying’s face was pinched with pain. “Lan Zhan… you’ve been going on for so long. Can you finish?”

“I’m hurting you?” Lan Zhan abruptly pulled out. “Sorry. I’ll stop.”

“No. You don’t have to stop. I liked it. Well, parts of it, I really liked. The oil… I feel dry and it hurts.”

“I’m sorry.” Lan Zhan grabbed the bottle of oil and slicked himself up with it. “I can use my hand instead,” he offered. It wasn’t what he wanted; as an alternative to hurting his love, it was more than satisfactory.  

“No,” Wei Ying insisted. “I want to feel you. Sometimes it felt really good.” 

Lan Zhan slid back in, slowly and steadily. “Tell me how to make it feel really good. What did I do?”

“You… how can I explain it?” Wei Ying went cross eyed as his husband bottomed out. “You touched something inside me. It felt… so incredibly amazing.”

Lan Zhan slid back out and adjusted his angle of penetration. “Tell me…” he ordered. “Tell me when I touch it again.” After a half dozen changes, he finally slid into his husband, making the man below gasp and yell something incoherent which might have been supposed to have been, “there!” 

Armed with this new knowledge, Lan Zhan set out to make a mess out of his husband. He could drive directly into that spot that made Wei Ying squirm. Or change his angle slightly and only barely brush past it. Or skip it altogether causing his love to squirm in a whole new way. This time he paid more attention to his husband’s responses, adding oil as necessary, teasing when he felt like it, and satisfying when he felt like it. And batting Wei Ying’s hands away whenever they strayed too close to his belly. “I want to fuck you until you scream,’ he had said that day, and Wei Ying wasn’t screaming yet. 

He was close to screaming, though… babbling incoherently…. Probably begging for release and moaning in pleasure. Sometimes loudly. But no screaming. 

“Wei Ying… dual cultivate with me,” Lan Zhan ordered. 

“You want me to what?” Wei Ying’s hands were gripping under his knees, holding his own legs spread wide.

“Dual cultivate.” Lan Zhan was getting ready to finish; why not finish together while improving their cores? “Gather your qi.”

“I hate you,” his husband panted. “At least kiss me while we’re doing it.”

Lan Zhan leaned down to slot their mouths together even as he thrust all of his qi into his partner.

Chapter Text

Wei Ying trembled. His entire body was sore from the tips of his hair to his toenails. “Don’t move,” he begged his husband. “If you move, I’m going to start all over again, and we ran out of oil.” He carefully pulled out of the body below him, gripping Lan Zhan’s hips to balance. He wanted to sit or, preferably, lay down. There was not a large enough place that was relatively clean; oil, semen, and sweat, dried or drying, stained everything from the bedding to the tent walls to the floor. Even Wei Ying’s writing desk (or what remained of it after it was unsuccessfully used to prop Lan Zhan’s hips up the first time he was penetrated) was covered in their spunk. 

“Am I bleeding?” Lan Zhan carefully pushed up from all fours to balance on his knees and toes. “I feel….”

“I didn’t see blood.” Wei Ying exhaled hard. “Either we did something wrong or the dual cultivation book left a lot out.”

“Or we did something right?” Lan Zhan’s lips curled slightly. “I need a bath.” He looked at the mess, “We should probably just burn this whole tent. I know I don’t want to wash anything in here. After I find somewhere to lie down. I’m exhausted.”

He looked it. Drying sweat covered his entire body; his hair was matted and wet as well. Wei Ying suspected he looked just as bedraggled. “Maybe Xue Yang brought something to sleep on?” He forced his weak legs to support his weight. “I’ll go take a look at what he brought.”

“Naked?”

“I’m not putting my dirty clothes back on. And I’m not putting clean clothes on until I at least partially bathe.” Walking felt weird; not only was his ass a good kind of sore from being penetrated, there was stuff sliding down his inner thighs. Disgusting . He shuddered. “I need a bath.”

Not that it was just his ass hurting from sex. His thighs, waist, and abs also hurt. 

Well… everything hurt. The generic body aches were due to dual cultivating. The rest was due to the entire night and almost the entire day having non-stop sex. He’d lost count of the number of orgasms Lan Zhan had wrung out of him somewhere around a dozen; the sun hadn’t even risen by that point. He’d tried counting the number of times they’d taken each other; he’d lost count of that, too. 

They’d tried to stop fucking each other several times; something was… almost forcing them to continue? His solo experience showed him that there was supposed to be a resting period between sessions. It was almost like they had eaten an aphrodisiac or something…. They’d orgasm, pant for a few breaths and the urge to continue would push them to join again…. 

Even now… there was an overwhelming need to go back into the tent and possess or be possessed…. Something beyond relieving themselves of their virginity…. Something beyond two soul mates joining for the first time.  Something beyond what was written in the dual cultivation manual. 

Wei Ying ignored the many itchy needs bothering his body to poke through Xue Yang’s robes and belongings. There were a few water gourds, which would help them get rid of the worst of the crusty fluids. He had a clean set of robes, too; they could use them as a sleeping mat at least. There was even a pouch with some dried fruits and nuts; Wei Ying poured some into his mouth, suddenly ravenous. 

“I found an uninvited guest,” Lan WangJi, also naked, stepped outside the tent holding something small and wiggly between two fingers.

“A love mouse?” Wei Ying stood and approached his husband, making an exasperated face at the wriggling thing.

The creature was not a mouse as it had no tail, but was definitely in the rodent family. It was approximately half the size of a normal mouse. They were carnivores; due to their size, they had an unusual method of hunting. They emitted an odorless pheromone that acted like an aphrodisiac; their prey literally had sex until they died. Then the love mice family nesting nearby would feast. Many unscrupulous people had tried, and failed, to make a diluted version of the pheromone to sell to other unscrupulous people. “Good thing we’re cultivators,” Wei Ying shivered in disgust. “Or we’d still be fucking each other.”

“Mmm,” Lan WangJi agreed. “There are worse ways to die.”

Wei WuXian blinked at his husband for a few moments before falling over in laughter. “I adore you the most when you make jokes. You sound so normal and…. My stomach hurts.” He chortled for a bit more, holding his stomach. “Why does no one else know you’re so funny?”

Lan WangJi shrugged and set the critter down with a shooing motion. “We should burn what needs to be burned and return to Lanling. I want a bath.”

Food, water, their cleaner robes, and anything in the tent not covered with semen were salvaged. The rest was burned in one large pyre, including Xue Yang’s corpse. Talismans to make the fire burn hotter than normal allowed it to turn to ash far more quickly than it should have taken. The array around the former Tiger Seal was removed and the inert remains shoved into a qiankun pouch. They used some of the water to wash most of the icky feeling off their skins. They ate the food and drank the last of the water for energy. Then Wei WuXian teleported them back to Koi Tower.

Wei WuXian was still feeling exhausted. Even after a prolonged bath, food, a full night of sleep, a second prolonged bath, more food, a morning nap, still more food, and a full shichen spent cuddling Jin Ping wasn’t sufficient to bring his energy levels up to normal. He picked at the food on the table before him, letting the noise of the clan and sect leaders and their attendants bickering over the newest set of nonsense wash over him. “How come no one has seen Jin GuangShan lately?” roused him from his thoughts. 

“The man caught a disease that affects his mind from a whore,” another answered. “Do you really think his family should parade him around?”

The first one sneered. “We have Jin ZiXuan’s word for that. Did you notice? How everyone who stood in his way to become sect leader has vanished, died, or is supposedly too ill to be seen in public?”

“Who stood in his way?” a third voice scoffed. “He is the only legitimate son of Jin GuangShan. It’s a blessing that pervert is finally tucked away from decent people. A man has needs, yes. Get a wife. Have ten! Have concubines. Do you know how many women have showed up here with pearls he gave them asking for their children to be recognised? He has no morals, no scruples. He’d fuck virgins, other men’s wives, and whores equally.”

The first one laughed harshly. “You just say that because your daughter has a pearl.”

“You’d think the same way, too, if you discovered one in your wife’s belongings!”

Wei WuXian looked at the trio; the first one, now protesting that his wife would never betray him, was not wearing Jin colors. “I’m just questioning here…” the first one continued. “Isn’t it a bit convenient that Jin ZiXun was murdered? And Jin GuangYao banished?”

“Jin GuangYao murdered Jin ZiXun,” the second reminded them. “Jin GuangYao was also not banished; he fled Koi Tower all on his own. He probably would have been banished or imprisoned for stealing from Lan ZongZhu had he stayed. But he didn’t. In any case, Jin ZiXun was fifth or sixth in line, far behind Jin ZiXuan. Jin GuangYao wasn’t even on the succession list due to his mother’s profession.” He frowned. “Weren’t you friendly with him? I remember you hanging around Jin GuangYao at sect conferences before Nie MingJue sliced his hand off….”

“I need more wine,” the first responded promptly, as if the preceding conversation had never occurred.

Wei WuXian watched him get lost in the crowd, making a mental note to talk to his brother-in-law about Jin GuangYao’s former cronies. They might all still be in contact. With that bastard working with demonic cultivators? And faking his own death? He’d hoped that executing Xue ChengMei would slow down whatever it was Meng Yao was trying to accomplish. Perhaps it just made him alter course slightly. More like a small rock placed in a larger river rather than a dam…. 

“Wei Xiong!” Nie HuaiSang looked like a drunken kitten as he careened off the people in his way to stand, swaying, in front of Wei WuXian’s table. “Where have you been the last few days? I tried to find you to get drunk.”

Wei WuXian tried to not give his friend a look ; the Nie heir had already been briefed. What are you up to? “I was away for a few days.”

“Of course you were,” Nie HuaiSang beamed, burped loudly, and swiped Wei WuXian’s wine carafe off the table to overpour himself a drink. “But where were you? What could possibly be more entertaining than drinking with me?” He slurped loudly, burped again, swayed for a moment, then turned around, stumbling over his feet yelling, “I need more wine here!”

Wei WuXian smiled softly at his friend’s antics; the man wasn’t drunk. The entire cup of wine had spilled down the front of his robes. “Oh here and there,” he hedged. “Mostly there. Just fooling around.”

Nie HuaiSang’s drunken actions had caused almost a quarter of the room to look in their direction. He poured himself another cup, again pretended to drink, and stumbled right into Wei WuXian’s table, falling over it and making a huge crashing noise. “Oh dear. What have I done?” he giggled.

Several people called out to see if the pair needed assistance. Wei WuXian brushed the worst of the food remnants from his clothing. “We’re fine.” Now that the whole room was looking at them, Nie HuaiSang winked. Just what are you planning, you conniver?

“Ah! Wei Gongzi!” Yao ZongZhu was almost guaranteed to step into any awkward moment and steal the attention. “Just the man I was talking about.” Wei WuXian firmly kept the smile on his face. “We haven’t had a sight of your Yin Tiger Seal in a very long time. Did you happen to bring it with you tonight?”

Wei WuXian refrained from scowling at his friend, who was still seated in the mess on the table drinking from a new bottle of wine. “I don’t have it anymore,” he admitted. “With the rumors of other demonic cultivators, I felt it best if I destroyed it.”

“Destroyed?” A Jin elder yelled. “How can you destroy it?”

“It’s mine to keep or to destroy,” Wei WuXian shrugged and wished he could kick his friend. Obviously, this was a conversation he wanted to have happen. Asshole . 

Yao ZongZhu frowned. “You should have consulted with us before doing anything so rash. I know Jin GuangShan always wanted to study it. So did a lot of people. Did you even consult your sect leader before you did it?”

Jiang WanYin interrupted, “My head disciple can do as he likes to his own belongings. Especially if it means other demonic cultivators will never get their hands on his inventions.”

The doors at the front of the Hall crashed open to reveal an ashen Jin ZiXuan flanked by Lan XiChen and Lan Wangji. “My friends… please excuse me. My deepest apologies. But I must ask you to leave. My family and I are going into mourning.” A loud murmur raced through the crowd. “A mangled body was delivered to us last week, and just now HanGuang-Jun used his qin to identify the person. My half-brother, Jin GuangYao, is dead.”

Chapter Text

“You could have told me the plan,” Wei WuXian grumbled once he and his co-conspirators were out of the banquet hall and comfortably ensconced in Jiang YanLi’s receiving room. “I felt like an idiot trying to figure out why Nie Xiong was pretending to be drunk.”

Jiang WanYin gave him a look and buffed him across the shoulders. “We did. You were too busy making funny faces at my niece or lovesick ones at Lan WangJi instead of paying attention to what us grownups were discussing.”

Wei WuXian glared at his sect leader. “I’m allowed to look at my husband.”

“Future husband.”

Jin ZiXuan sighed and moved Jin Ping from one shoulder to the other, patting her back softly. “To recap, since you weren’t paying attention earlier: A’Li and I will do the official mourning stuff for my fake dearly departed brother. Nie HuaiSang has eyes and ears in most of the mid-sized sects and almost half of the smaller clans. He’ll be collecting information as to where Jin GuangYao really is. If my half-brother is gathering an army of demonic cultivators, hopefully, we can find a way to infiltrate them. Jiang WanYin and Wen Qing’s wedding will proceed as scheduled; A’Li and I will be a muted presence there, but we will attend. 

“Wei WuXian, you had to announce the Tiger Seal was destroyed because that’s also information that may lead to us discovering where Jin GuangYao is. Especially with Xue ChengMei dead. What has yet to be decided is when you and Lan WangJi will wed.”

“I was thinking after Chunjie,” Jiang YanLi added. “Or maybe next summer. Early summer when the weather is not too hot, but the water is warm enough for swimming.”

“No,” Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian both objected. “I’m not waiting more than half a year to get married,” Wei WuXian continued. 

“We can get married tonight,” Lan WangJi offered.

Lan XiChen objected to that. “Uncle will want to see you marry.”

“Then Uncle can come tonight to see us marry,” Lan WangJi sounded like a toddler. Which would have been the funniest thing to happen except that Jin ZiXuan promptly handed his daughter over to the second jade and walked back to his wife. Wei WuXian burst out laughing at his husband’s horrified face. Have you never held a baby before?

“My head disciple is not getting married in the middle of the night like it’s something shameful,” Jiang WanYin sided with his future brother-in-law. “The ceremony will be at Lotus Pier with all the crap every other sect heirs marrying each other deserve to have.”

“Crap?” Jiang YanLi scowled at her brother. 

“I don’t need an elaborate ceremony,” Wei WuXian insisted once he calmed down enough to speak. “Just the people here, really. I don’t need all that…” he avoided his martial sister’s ire by waving his hand in lieu of saying ‘crap’. 

Lan XiChen blinked his eyes at his brother, apparently disregarding whatever it was the second jade was emoting. “Didi, you should think about adopting an infant. You look quite settled holding a baby,” he teased, with a more than slightly evil grin trying to take over his features. Then, “Can you wait until tomorrow? I can send a runner to Cloud Recesses tonight.” To everyone, he added, “We in GusuLan have an additional ceremony that we consider equally as binding as the traditional three bows. We hold a handfasting ceremony, sometimes in conjunction with the bows and sometimes as a separate ceremony. I propose that Wangji and Wei WuXian have a simple handfasting ceremony tomorrow and a more formal wedding next spring or summer.”

“Acceptable,” Lan WangJi agreed, shifting Jin Ping to a more comfortable position where she could gaze lovingly at her mother instead of trying to grab his hair and ribbon. 

“Unacceptable,” Jiang WanYin argued. “Handfasting? It sounds like we’d be hiding that they’re married. Or pretending that they’re married.”

“Handfasting is better than people seeing them sleeping in the same rooms, making the correct assumption that they’re dual cultivating with each other every night and shaming themselves and their sects,” Wen Qing interjected. When her future husband’s face turned several shades of purple, she added, “I can tell Wei WuXian’s core has increased in power over the last few days without even taking his pulse. Now that these idiots know they’re betrothed to each other, they have no reason to not have sex whenever they feel like it.” Wei WuXian could feel his own face heating up. How does she know? Is it that obvious?

“Stop talking about… that… like it’s nothing,” Jiang WanYing roared. 

“What? Sex?” Wen Qing folded her arms across her chest. “Every adult in this room has either done it or thought about doing it.” She somehow managed to look down her nose at her much taller intended’s face. “Including you.”

Wei WuXian looked around the room. Both Nie brothers wore bright red faces, the younger trying unsuccessfully to hide it behind a fan. Both jades somehow managed to keep their complexions clear; their ears betrayed their embarrassment. Jiang YanLi was laughing, her red face hiding behind her palms. Her husband stared at the ceiling, showing that his blush extended down his throat. 

“Handfasting is fine with me,” Wei WuXian squeaked out into the silence.

Jin Ping decided to input her opinion. She scrunched her body almost in half, opened her mouth, and proved to everyone that she was related to Jiang WanYin: she let out an aggravated yell that easily matched his volume. Lan WangJi nearly dropped her in surprise. 

As soon as she was deposited back into her mother’s arms, Wei WuXian grabbed his husband’s hand and pulled him out of the room. They escaped to Lan WangJi’s room. “Shall we embarrass our sects tonight?” Wei Ying teased.

“Yes,” Lan Zhan answered, hunger obvious in his voice, sash already abandoned on the floor, his hands busy at his robes’ ties. “My jar of oil is larger than the one we used up in the desert.” 

“Kiss me,” Wei Ying demanded. It was challenging undoing their clothing fasteners while their tongues were trying to tie each other in knots; they somehow managed. Naked, they fell onto the bed, Wei Ying wrapping his legs around his lover’s hips. “I want you in me,” he urged. 

“Mmm,” might have simply been an agreement, or it may have been the only sound Lan Zhan was capable of making, given that his lips were currently wrapped around a nipple and sucking gently. Wei Ying was jolted upward and forward, his bum now resting on his husband’s thighs. A finger, slippery with oil, circled his rim and started pushing in. When did you even open the jar? When did you even grab it? There was a dual sensation of pain as a second finger worked its way into his ass and Lan Zhan’s mouth moved to suck a bruise over his collarbone. 

“Fuck, Lan Zhan…” Wei Ying moaned around his fist shoved between his teeth in an effort to keep quiet. “I want you in me.”

Lan Zhan’s head raised a bit, not enough to make eye contact. “Want you. Want to fuck you.”

“Yes.”

“Want to…” his forehead sank down to rest over Wei Ying’s heart. “Want to make you take me.”

Wei Ying woke up out of his pleasure haze at the change in tone. You want to make me take you? Make me? What does that mean? “Tell me what you want?” He went cross-eyed as a third finger wormed its way in beside the other two. Pleasure and pain. I need you in me, Lan Zhan. Why does preparing me have to take so long?  

“Want to make you take me,” came out as a whisper. “Want to hold you down. Tie you up. Fuck you open on my cock until you beg me.”

“Do you want me to beg you to stop or to continue?” As if I would beg you to stop? I liked it when you tied me up back in the Burial Mounds. I liked it the other night when you bent me in all sorts of ways and pushed yourself so deep in me that it felt like you permanently rearranged my guts to make space in my body for you to live in. I love feeling you moving inside me. He held out his hands. “Hold me down and make me take you, Lan Zhan. Zhan’Er. Gege.” He would have said more endearments, but he was Silenced, both wrists held tightly in his lover’s right hand, and shoved down over his head. 

The left hand was apparently slicking up his cock and guiding it to Wei Ying’s entrance. “Mine,” Lan Zhan growled and shoved in; the sudden stretch making Wei Ying’s eyes see white from pain. 

Lan Zhan set a brutal pace. Below him, the Silenced Wei Ying rested on his shoulders and head, arms held tightly over his head. Unable to move to make himself more comfortable, unable to protest (had he even wanted to). 

All he could do was take . So take he did. 

At first, there was only the pain of being stretched too much too quickly. And then Lan Zhan moved them slightly, so his pistoning cock was aimed right at that spot inside Wei Ying that made him whine behind his sealed lips. He wanted to beg, for what he had no idea. The Silence spell wore off eventually; Wei Ying simply appreciated being able to breathe through his mouth again for a few moments before, “Lan Zhan… you are so mean to your Wei Ying! Not letting me talk? How am I supposed to beg you with my lips stuck together? I’m all helpless under you…. I can’t move my hands or my arms!” He tried, not very hard, to wiggle them out from his husband’s firm grip. “See? Your poor Wei Ying! My poor back is hanging in the air! My legs are spread so wide, I can’t even make my ankles touch! I can’t move away from you! All I can do,” here he paused to pant as the thrusts, somehow, became even more powerful. “All I can do is take you! Let you use my body! I’m helpless, Lan Zhan, helpless to do anything except take what you give me.”

“Beg me,” Lan Zhan ordered.

“Beg you? Beg you to fuck me harder?” He whined, half in agony, half in delight, as Lan Zhan slammed into him. “Fuck me hard, Lan Zhan. Gege. Lan Er’Gege. Fuck me so I won’t be able to walk tomorrow! Er’Gege! Like that! Like that! Keep doing that!” He could feel an orgasm approaching, freezing up his toes, his ankles, his shins…. “Lan Er’Gege… don’t stop! Just like that…. Fuck!” His fingers were tingling, from nerves being compressed or the oncoming orgasm, he didn’t know. “I’m going to… don’t stop don’t stop like that yes, fuck, like that!” His thighs, balls, cock, and abdomen were now almost rigid, “Don’t stop don’t stop don’t stop don’t stop don’t stop don’t stop. Hard. Fuck me hard!” He was almost there…. “Please please please….” He looked across his naked body; it was an erotic sight. His cock: so hard, and dripping down onto his belly. His thighs: spread obscenely wide. His balls: so tight and full. And Lan Zhan’s cock: glistening with oil, fucking into him. He was still begging, “Please please please….” And then it hit; he could feel every muscle in his body seizing up. “Fuck fuck fuck.” His seed spurted, hitting their chests and bellies, Lan Zhan’s chin, Wei Ying’s nose. 

Lan Zhan kept fucking him through the orgasm, not letting up even when Wei Ying surfaced from his orgasmic befuddlement to beg again. “Sensitive! Too sensitive!”

“Wei Ying can take it.”

“No. Sensitive.” 

“Wei Ying can take it a bit more. Almost there. Be good for me. Let me….”

“Change the angle?” Wei Ying pleaded. It hurt now, having Lan Zhan battering at his pleasure spot. “Sensitive. Hurts.”

“Almost there…. Wei Ying can take it.”

It took what appeared to be an endlessly long time before the sensitivity seemed like it was being beaten out of him by the battering ram attacking his insides. “Wei Ying can take it,” Lan Zhan repeated, as Wei Ying started feeling arousal fluttering around his belly. He looked down to see his cock twitching again.

“Fuck.”

“Can you go again?” Lan Zhan’s eyes were focused on the reviving organ even as he shifted his weight more to his right hand. 

“Again?” Wei Ying’s voice almost squeaked.

“Again,” Lan Zhan demanded and wrapped a newly slick left hand around his husband’s steadily thickening shaft. 

Wei Ying was helpless to do anything but accept this dual pleasuring. On some low level of cognition, he knew he was babbling some sort of nonsense. His feelings were disjointed, almost surreal. 

Sweat dripped down his body, plopped onto the sheets, pooled in the wrinkles on his skin. 

Oil drooled out of his ass, slithered down his back. 

Lan Zhan’s breathing changed, became more erratic. 

Hot fluid splashed into him, filling him up, oozing out.

His own orgasm followed quickly, not nearly as powerful as his first. 

Relief flowed through him as his back was allowed to once again rest on the sheets, as his legs were permitted to close, his hands released to relax at his side. A warm, wet cloth tenderly wiped fluids away. “Lan Zhan… you really like that? Like when I’m helpless under you?”

“Mmm. Sit up. Need to change the sheets.”

He allowed himself to be manhandled again, until he was once again lying, this time on dry sheets and with a body curled up around him. “We can do that again sometime, Lan Zhan.”

“Are you sore? Did I hurt you?” The low voice sounded hesitant, unsure, wary, anxious.

Wei Ying forced himself to take stock of his body. There was soreness, yes, inside and out. Lingering hints of pain over his chest where his lover had left love bites. Nothing that wouldn’t be fixed by a good sleep. “ I don’t think I can walk just yet? I will be fine by morning. Zhan’Er… I love you.”

If there was a response, he was unaware. Sleep fell over him like a blanket.

Chapter Text

The Lan messenger arrived in the morning. Lan QiRen was being stubborn. If his nephew insisted on handfasting, he’d have to travel to Cloud Recesses for his uncle’s blessing. Lan WangJi’s normally impassive face showed his frustration and resolution that the handfasting would take place with or without his uncle’s blessing. The Jiang siblings insisted on being there, perhaps to unsubtly influence the Lan grandmaster into giving his blessing. Since Jiang YanLi was going, there was no real reason why Jin ZiXuan shouldn’t go with her to show his support for the marriage as well: mourning for his fake dead brother could be paused for a few days. Because the Jin and Jiang sect leaders were going, the Nie brothers and Wen siblings decided to tag along… the more who witnessed the handfasting, the more accepted it would be. Or something to that effect.

With so many important people getting ready to leave Koi Tower for Cloud Recesses, there was no way they could be ready to leave before lunch. Or possibly even dinner. The Lans, however, decided to leave earlier, to prepare Cloud Recesses for the other sects’ arrival.

So Wei WuXian found himself alone, bored, and impatient that morning. “I can go to the training grounds,” he decided. “I need to get back in the habit of using Suibian.” There were disciples already training there; it looked like they were practicing hand to hand combat. He whistled in appreciation; the younglings were using dirty street tricks instead of proper martial arts moves. “I didn’t know the Jin taught their juniors to fight like this! I thought they’d be as stuffy as the Lan!” The mess of students shifted, and he saw a flash of Jiang purple in the middle of the Jin gold. “Hey… is this a training exercise? Or a brawl?” He ran across to drag one of the Jin boys out of the fight. “What’s going on here?”

“Let go of me,” the teenager yelled. “We’re teaching this traitor a lesson!”

“Traitor?” Wei WuXian threw the boy and grabbed the next. “How is a Jiang disciple a traitor to the Jin? Stop fighting. All of you.” Shoving the boys away wasn’t doing anything; they simply ran around him to rejoin the fray. He had a few of the talismans he’d designed for Xue ChengMei in his sleeves; he threw them at the more aggressive teens. With five boys frozen in place, the others were startled enough to pause the beating, allowing Wei WuXian to dart in and grab the Jiang junior. “Can you run?” he hissed. 

“Wei Laoshi!” The junior nodded, scrambling to keep up. 

Behind them, the Jin juniors called out, “Wei Laoshi? Wei WuXian?” It would be a race as to who could escape the training grounds faster: the Jiang boy or his assailants. 

Once they were away from the Jin juniors, the Jiang junior whipped his arm away from Wei WuXian’s light grasp. “I can handle myself,” he grumbled. “I was doing fine until you showed up.”

“Doing fine? If by doing fine you mean they were beating you half to death? Some gratitude would be appreciated.” Wei WuXian could hardly believe the boy’s insolence.

“Gratitude?” The boy wiped blood from his chin and looked at it like he’d never seen blood before. “I confessed to you that I’m a cut sleeve and you decided I wasn’t worth telling that you were one, too? What do I have to be grateful for? Being lied to? I would have kept your secret, Wei Laoshi.”

It took Wei WuXian a few breaths to recognise the bloody teen. “Mo XuanYu?” The other nodded again. “We should get you to the infirmary. Get these cuts cleaned up.” He cocked his head. “What are you doing here? And why were they calling you a traitor?”

Mo XuanYu ducked his head and stared at a cut on his hand. “Jiang ZongZhu and Jin ZongZhu talked to me and said I could go study in Lotus Pier as a guest disciple if I wanted. I like it there.” Now Wei WuXian could see that the youth’s robes were not exactly the same as other Jiang juniors; they had the Jin peony, Sparks Amidst Snow, embroidered on the cuffs and belt. “It’s my turn to be a part of Jiang ZongZhu’s escort, and my former…. Well, they let me know they didn’t appreciate me leaving Koi Tower even temporarily.”

“Lost their punching bag, did they?” Wei WuXian allowed himself to stretch sore muscles. His hips were hurting after the strain he’d put them through the night before and then running this morning. 

“I should have stayed here,” Mo XuanYu glared at the older man. “At least here no one lied to me!”

“It wasn’t a lie,” Wei WuXian explained. “Not really. And it’s not that I didn’t trust you to keep my secrets…. I didn’t tell anyone. Not Jiang Cheng. Not ShiJie.”

“A lie of omission is still a lie.”

“Sometimes,” Wei WuXian allowed. “Sometimes it’s just better to not say anything. Speaking about it makes it real.” He paused to consider his thoughts. “At the time we spoke… Jiang Cheng had already told me he was working on a betrothal agreement. I assumed it would be to a woman, because normally men marry women. That’s the way the world works. What I felt for Lan Zhan… after my marriage, I wouldn’t be allowed to feel anymore. My respect and duty would have to be to her.” He smiled sadly. “What would you have thought if I said I, too, was a cut sleeve, and then I married a woman? After I already told you it didn’t matter to me that you like boys? Rather hypocritical, don’t you think?”

“I would have understood, Wei Laoshi. I know that sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do for the good of the family or the sect. It’s not always about what we want.”

“That’s a very adult thing to understand.” Wei WuXian hauled himself up out of a deep bend, hips whining again. “Let’s do another adult thing and get you to the infirmary.”

“Yes, Wei Laoshi.”

Jiang WanYin was pacing outside the Healers’ Pavilion when the duo arrived. “What the… what have you been up to?” he hissed, ducking his head to avoid Jin Ping’s arms stretching out for his shiny guan. She was determined, however, and managed to grab an earlobe and tug. 

“Why do you have my niece?” Wei WuXian countered.

“A’Jie says holding babies is supposed to calm you down. Now what have you been doing? Jin ZiXuan told me some of his juniors tattled that you beat them up for no reason.”

“No reason?” Wei WuXian snorted. “No reason? Liars.”

“I’m ‘no reason’,” Mo XuanYu added. “My former shixiong wanted to teach me a lesson about abandoning one’s sect. Wei Laoshi objected to the topic.”

Jiang WanYin glared at his guest disciple. “Go get yourself looked at. I’ll take care of this with Jin ZongZhu.” Both men watched as Mo XuanYu bowed and entered the pavilion. 

“How are you going to handle this mess?” Wei WuXian deliberately made his eyes cross and cooed at his niece. “Your xiaojiujiu is going to have to be very clever and very diplomatic, Baobao.”

“Xiaojiujiu?” Jiang WanYin hefted his niece up and away from her other uncle. 

“Of course!” They began walking towards the Jin family quarters. “I’m her dajiu, after all. Oh.” He started laughing. 

“What’s funny?”

“Jin Ping’s dajiu and xiaojiu heading off to protect her xiaoshushu. It’s just funny, that’s all.

Chapter Text

The Weifengshi felt like home. The cool refreshing air, the babbling brook, the way the stones in the yard crunched under his boots. It was a home he was itching to leave; Lan Wangji was supposedly meditating in his own home not too far away. Wei WuXian gently patted the white messenger bunny as it delivered a message: ‘I will see you at dinner. I miss you.’ “I miss you, too, Lan Zhan,” he sighed and looked towards his little house. The back doors were wide open; Lan QiRen was inside, calmly sitting at the dining table drinking tea. Taking a deep breath to center himself, Wei WuXian walked into his house. “Lan Xiansheng,” he bowed at exactly the appropriate depth for a suitor meeting his beloved’s parent.

“Wei WuXian.”

I would offer you tea, but I see you’ve already made yourself at home. He wanted to say it. Insulting the man who needed to bless his marriage was probably not the correct approach. So instead he placed Suibian in the sword stand and went to sit on the opposite side of the table. “Is the tea acceptable? I’m afraid I haven’t been here long enough to check to see if it is stale.”

“I brought fresh tea for you,” Lan QiRen regally nodded at a box. “I understand you find our normal teas unpleasant, so I had this one specially ordered.”

Wei WuXian bowed again as best he could. “This one appreciates Lan Xiansheng’s efforts.”

“Does this one?” Lan QiRen poured them both a cup, but didn’t take a sip. “Are you determined to marry my nephew?”

“Yes.”

“Even if I decline to give my blessing?”

“Lan Xiansheng… a marriage is simply a vow between two people. We dress it up with ceremonies and games, but at its heart? Lan Zhan and I have made our vows to each other already. We hope for harmony in our marriage. If you say you forbid us from having the handfasting ceremony, we can’t stop you. If you say you forbid us from making our bows next spring, we can’t stop you. 

“However.” He firmed his voice. “We are already married. With or without your blessing, we will remain married. Also, we have Jiang ZongZhu and Lan ZongZhu’s blessings and signed betrothal agreements; the ceremonies will proceed as arranged.”

Lan QiRen’s eyes narrowed. “Even though being a cut sleeve must be an embarrassment to your parents?”

Wei WuXian gripped his tea cup so hard it cracked in his hand. “There is nothing I have ever done in my entire life that would have embarrassed or shamed my parents. My parents would have wanted me to be as happy in my marriage as they were in theirs.”

“Being a cut sleeve makes you happy?”

“Lan Zhan makes me happy.” Wei WuXian carefully placed the destroyed cup on his table. “I make him happy. He is my zhiji.” He looked into the grandmaster’s eyes. “We will handfast tomorrow morning with or without your blessing. We will make our bows next year with or without your blessing.”

Lan QiRen poured himself another cup of tea and blew across the hot beverage. “So fierce in your disrespect for your elders. Just like your mother.”

Wei WuXian glared at the grandmaster. “I could have shown you nothing but respect since the day we met and I think you would still have treated me as a troublemaker because you hated my mother. I hope whatever she did to you was worth your continued ire almost twenty years after her death!”

“She shaved off my beard!” Lan QiRen roared. 

Wei WuXian stared in shock, then struggled to not burst out laughing. Looking at his shaking body, the elder frowned, “It’s not funny.”

“Of course not,” Wei WuXian snorted, holding his convulsing stomach. “Not funny at all. This small one is sure Lan Xiansheng’s beard was something to be proud of before…” He couldn’t contain his giggles anymore; he nearly fell over laughing. “Before my mother shaved it off,” he wheezed. “I agree, Lan Xiansheng… you absolutely cannot give your blessing for your nephew to marry the son of the woman who shaved your beard off.”

“Ridiculous,” the older man sighed. “You make me sound ridiculous.”

Wei WuXian swallowed his giggles as best as possible. “I thought she’d done something unforgivable. Like flirted with you while knowing she was going to marry my father. Or tried to kill you.”

“Tried to kill me? It would have been less humiliating if she had. 

“Your mother had a reputation for flirting with everyone she met. Same as you. Until she arrived at our lectures that year and met Wei ChangSe. She was beautiful and talented and at least half of the boys were hoping she’d look at us with some sort of interest. The ways our classmates tried to attract her attention?” Lan QiRen’s eyes were soft, focused on those memories. 

“Even you?”

“Me? I have never had any desire to wed. I might have broken my self-imposed vow had she deigned to look my way, though. She thought I was pompous and too full of my own self-importance.” His eyes cleared. “You’re very much like her, you know. I can see why WangJi loves you.”

“Lan XianSheng… will you please give us your blessing to marry?”

“As if it matters to you whether or not I do? Seeing as how you’re already married and going through the rituals because you have the blessing of your sect leaders?”

“Lan Zhan would very much like your blessing. So… it matters to me.” 

Lan QiRen sighed. “If I had the ability or desire to deny my nephew anything he truly wanted, you would never have come here to heal after the battle at the Nightless City.” He pulled out a box from his sleeve. “You will need this for the handfasting ceremony tomorrow morning. It’s yours to wear when you’re here.” He pulled a green ribbon out of another pocket in his sleeve. “You will tie that ribbon on his wrist. Watch carefully.” He took Wei WuXian’s left arm and began winding the ribbon around it in an intricate pattern. “You’re going to be doing this to him at the same time he’s putting his on you. So watch the rhythm. When done correctly, it’s a beautiful dance.” He unwound the ribbon. “Again. Watch..” He repeated his actions, Wei WuXian memorizing the pattern. Then he removed it. “Your turn to practice.” Wei WuXian tied and untied the ribbon over and over until he had the pattern and tempo perfect. 

Lan QiRen stood up and shook some of the wrinkles out of his robe. “Wei WuXian…. I consent to your marriage with Lan WangJi. May your lives together be blissful. May your love last until you both pass away.”

Dinner came too fast and yet not fast enough. Wei WuXian sighed at his bowl of rice and the platters and bowls of bland vegetables and tofu. “I forgot to bring chili oil,” he whined to his table mates. 

Jiang WanYin smacked his shoulder. “You’re the one who wants to marry into GusuLan.”

“I’ll die of starvation!”

Jiang YanLi smiled gently. “A’Xian… you only have to spend half the year here. Less than that because of night hunts. I’m sure even you can remember to buy chili oil at some point?”

“Or you could learn to cook,” Jin ZiXuan muttered as he slurped his bowl of medicinal soup. “I forgot how bad the food is here.”

“I don’t remember seeing you in the dining hall during the lectures,” Jiang WanYin narrowed his eyes at his brother-in-law.

“One of my disciples was a pretty good cook,” Jin ZiXuan looked like he was refraining from sticking his tongue out. “We had to buy some herbs and spices from the market each week, and he wasn’t allowed to cook meat…. But other than that, he fed us very tasty meals.”

“I should have let Wei WuXian punch you in the face more often,” Jiang WanYin grumbled. “Engaged to my sister but you wouldn’t even share food with us?”

“ChengCheng….” Jiang YanLi chided. “You weren’t on speaking terms. How could he invite you?”

“A simple, ‘do you want to eat food that has flavor?’ would have sufficed,” Wei WuXian stabbed a chopstick into a rather wilted radish and held it up. “I didn’t know it was possible to make these things taste even worse than they normally do. I’d be impressed if I wasn’t horrified.”

“Don’t play with your food.”

“I’m not hungry.” Wei WuXian stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Chapter Text

The Jingshi was empty when he got there. “I’ll just have a look around,” Wei WuXian told himself. “It’s to be my home after tomorrow anyways….” There wasn’t much to find. A loose floorboard hid a few oddities: sets of scribbled-on paper, a drawing of Lan WangJi wearing a flower in his hair, a faded red ribbon. “You kept these?” He whistled in slight awe, flicking through page after page of one of the many copies of the Rules he’d done at fifteen. “Such a fuddy-duddy!” The portrait he stared at for a long time, picking out flaws. “I didn’t really know you then. It resembles you quite a bit, but…. It’s missing the way your eyes get all tender when they look at me. You look stuffy sitting so straight…. You’re not stuffy at all, though, are you.” He traced a finger over the portrait’s lips. “I got these completely wrong. They look severe, not kissable….” He put everything back as best he could. 

It took far longer to find where his husband stashed his porn: one of the bookcases had a false bottom. The first book removed was rather typical in the boy-fucks-girl porn of his youth with the change that it was two boys fucking each other. It was the standard kids from warring families meet, become friends, not really understanding why they need to be enemies over a fifty year old feud. Then one day, one or both families finds out they’re friends, stuff happens, and the boys need to do something about it. Naked of course. The only difference, really, is that neither of the boys ends up pregnant, thus ending the feud.

The second book was the typical ‘child gets sold into a brothel’ and actually enjoys the work. There was no additional plot. It was just chapter after chapter of the guy being fucked by his clients. 

The third was yet another stereotypical harem one. Barbarians invade the Empire. The Emperor himself leads the resistance, winning the battles. The barbarian warriors who survive are horribly mutilated (which was a not so refreshing change from the standard ‘everyone gets their head chopped off). In this case, each barbarian warrior had his right leg cut off above the knee. Wei WuXian shuddered at that picture. The barbarian chief, of course, had a teenaged, beautiful child. The chief is expecting to be killed; the emperor spares him, only cutting off both of his legs at the knee. The child and all pretty women are removed to the emperor’s household to be enslaved as servants, concubines, or given as gifts to the emperor’s advisors. The barbarian chief’s child is, of course, sent to be part of the emperor’s harem and is treated quite cruelly until the emperor realizes he’s fallen in lust and later, love. The only change was that the barbarian chief’s daughter would give birth to the next emperor thus uniting the barbarians with the empire, while a son could not. 

The fourth one was the one Lan WangJi had kept from Wei WuXian in their tent that night. Skimming over it, Wei WuXian saw images of the main character having sex with both men and women. “Mmm? Lan Zhan… I thought you were attracted to only men….” He settled down to read, only to find himself disturbed almost immediately. The protagonist had saved the wealthy merchant’s daughter from a band of robbers. Then turned colors and immediately raped her in her own carriage as payment. She struggled and cried, of course, but then inexplicably became aroused at his prowess and begged him to continue. “I can’t imagine that ever being close to reality. No wonder you didn’t want me to read this.” He flipped forward a few chapters to where the protagonist encountered a young man in an inn’s dining room. He drugged the boy with an aphrodisiac and proceeded to fuck the boy in front of all the other patrons. Again, the boy cried that he didn’t want it, until he all of a sudden started praising his rapist’s body and what it was doing. “Unrealistic.” Other chapters showed the victims trying to run, to escape, only to be caught and raped or caught, tortured, and then raped. The victims all struggled and cried piteously until they were overwhelmed by his cock’s skill and fucked into orgasm after orgasm. 

“Is this what you want? You liked it the other night when I was helpless…. I liked it, too.” he thought about enacting a version of these stories…. Of being chased through the woods, only to be captured and ravished by his husband. Of walking into an inn, seeing a beautiful ‘stranger’, drugging him, and… well, he didn’t think he’d be up to public sex, but taking his ‘drugged’ Lan Zhan to their room wouldn’t be inappropriate, would it?

“What are you doing?”

Wei Ying spun on his butt to smile up at his husband. “Researching. Interesting collection you have here.” He smoothly stood and strolled over, rapidly thinking of how to take advantage of what he’d read. Slapping his hand on Lan Zhan’s chest, he grinned. “I have placed a talisman on you that makes you obedient to my every whim. Strip.”

Lan Zhan looked down at his talisman-free clothing. “As soon as I remove my robe, I will no longer be under the talisman’s control. Is that a problem?”

Wei Ying suppressed a giggle that his love was playing along. “I didn’t think of that.” Wei Ying looked critically at his husband. “Your robes are too prim and proper. This little bit of skin here,” he placed an accusing finger on the small triangle of skin at the top of his robes,” isn’t sufficient.”

“You could ask me to strip and then put the talisman on,” Lan Zhan offered helpfully.

“Defeats the purpose,” Wei Ying muttered. 

“You could order me to just remove my trousers?” 

“That’ll work. Remove your boots, socks and trousers. No talking.” Lan Zhan smirked and took his sweet time removing those articles of clothing, somehow managing to keep his modesty preserved the entire time. “Do you want me?” Lan Zhan nodded. “Show me. Show me how you want me.”

Lan Zhan untied his robes, knelt on the bed, back facing his husband, and spread his knees wide. He pulled his robes and hair around, so most of his backside was bare. From a sleeve, he took a bottle of oil, and liberally coated his fingers. Those fingers dipped down to slide into his body. Wei Ying watched, captivated, as those long fingers dipped in and out, stretching him. 

“You’re beautiful like this, Lan Zhan… You were made just for me, weren’t you? Made to take me?” Lan Zhan mmmed in response, wiped his oily hand on the bedding and bent forward, offering his body up. “You want me to take you?” Wei Ying teased lightly, and ran a hand over the bare skin. “I love doing that. I love the way you feel around me. I love how soft and warm you are inside, how you squeeze me half to death. I love hearing the noises you make when you can’t control yourself any longer.” He began removing his clothing. “I’ll take you, Lan Zhan. But I’m only going to chase my own pleasure from your body.” He oiled himself up and smoothly entered his lover’s body. “Take what you want from me.”

It was heavenly. Hot, smooth, wet, tight were all such lame descriptions. Surely there had to be better ones to describe the intensity of being inside his husband’s body? Poets discussed pleasure gardens and jade pillars and chrysanthemums and all sorts of euphemisms for physically loving one’s partner and fell far short of describing the reality of actually becoming one person . Despite his threat to not pleasure his lover, Wei Ying was unable to not change the angle of penetration until he found the one that had Lan Zhan making little forced huf noises instead of ah . “Lan Zhan… you really are perfect, you know that? Even on your hands and knees, submitting yourself to me…. You are so beautiful. The way you feel around me? The way you move to meet me? The way you sound? The way you look? You are perfection itself!” He sped his thrusts up, feeling the need to orgasm creeping around his skin. “I’m going to fill you up until all that’s inside you is me. I never want to leave, Lan Zhan. Let’s just stay like this, hmm?” Beneath him, Lan Zhan shifted his weight onto one arm; the other moved to start jerking himself off. “Do you need it, Lan Zhan? I need it, too. Fly with me, my love.” 

Wei Ying hands gripped tight around his husband’s hips. His whole consciousness reduced to the feelings spilling out from his groin. The rhythmic clenching as Lan Zhan gasped out his release underneath him. Streams of white hot gratification as his own orgasm hit. 

Somehow he managed to gather his wits sufficiently to pull out, and find a pitcher of water and a washcloth. He tenderly wiped them both up, then cuddled up with his husband in their bed. Our bed! “I love you,” he whispered once Lan Zhan started stirring.

“I love you, too.” Lan Zhan nestled closer into his lover’s embrace. “Shushu and I talked this morning. He is unhappy that I am a cut sleeve, but even more unhappy that I chose you.”

“Really?”

Lan Zhan nodded. “He mentioned that if I was looking for a smart man to marry, perhaps I could look at Nie HuaiSang.”

“Really? Your uncle suggested you marry Nie HuaiSang?”

“It was a suggestion; I turned it down. Only you, my Wei Ying. I will only marry you. He did give us his blessing, at last.“ Lan Zhan twisted to smirk at his husband. “Did you know your mother shaved my uncle’s attempt at growing a beard back when they were students together? After Shushu gave us permission, XiongZhang teased that if Shushu had been unwilling, he would be more than happy to assist us in recreating your mother’s crime.”

“He didn’t!” Wei Ying burst out laughing. 

“He did. XiongZhang was emphatic that he and Jiang ZongZhu would help hold Shushu down while we did it, too.” Lan Zhan’s tone of voice sounded quite smug.

“He gave me wedding blessings earlier today,” Wei Ying admitted. “And a box with a Lan ribbon for tomorrow’s handfasting. He even taught me how to tie it.”

“Good. 

“Wei Ying… what were you researching in those books?”

Wei Ying rubbed his nose in thought. “I wanted to read that book you didn’t want me to see. There’s a reason you bought it. Or a reason you haven’t yet burned it in disgust. Which means there’s something in there that you find worthwhile. It can’t be as simple as rape, because you had plenty of opportunities to rape me and never did it. So…. I thought….”

“It is. In a way. My desires for you, almost from the very beginning, were about overpowering you, forcing you to submit to me. Taking from you as I pleased without regard to your needs or pleasure…. I thought I was a monster for wanting that. For wanting a man. For wanting to… do those things to you. Those books… showed me that others want something similar. That men can like men and…..”

Wei Ying hugged his lover tight. “Not a monster. Lan Zhan could never be a monster. You see… a monster would have acted out on those desires from the very beginning. A monster would want me to feel only pain, not the pleasure in pain. When you tied me up? When you held me down? I liked it. We both liked it. I would very much like to do it again. If there comes a time when we try something and one of us doesn’t like it? I know you… I know you would stop doing it. Like I would stop doing it.”

Lan Zhan buried his face in his lover’s chest. “The other night… you told me to stop and I kept going.”

“I never said ‘stop’. I said I was sensitive.”

“Semantics.”

Wei Ying laughed lightly and pressed a kiss to his husband’s hair. “If you had suggested stopping, I would have said no. Zhiji…. Lan Er’Gege…. Zhan’Er…. Xingan….”

Lan Zhan pushed them so Wei Ying was laying on his back, and Lan Zhan was resting his head over his husband’s chest. “A’Ying… your heart beats so steadily….”

“Mmm. Beats for you.”

“What do you want for a wedding present? XiongZhang and JiangZongZhu have decided on the official gifts…. Is there something you want that only I can give you?”

Wei Ying hmmmed in thought. “I have everything I need. Someday? Someday I would like for us to have a little one to raise, and a donkey.”

“Like your parents.”

“Exactly. Someday. Not tomorrow.”

“Someday. Is there something you would like for tomorrow?”

“Not really…” Wei Ying smiled wryly. “Unless you’re finally going to tell me the name of my song?”

“WangXian. It’s always been WangXian since the day the first notes came into my head.” 

“WangXian…. What a perfect name….” Wei Ying smiled a genuinely happy smile. “WangXian….”

Chapter Text

Their wedding day dawned cold and rainy. Wei WuXian was forcefully escorted out of the Jingshi by his sect leader and scolded the whole way as they walked through the mud to the Weufengshi. “You aren’t married yet,” Jiang WanYin spoke in as loud a tone as possible without actually shouting. “A’Jie has been fretting since last night! You need to look perfect today and instead you look….” Here he gave out a frustrated (and embarrassed?) groan. “He couldn't have left your neck alone?”

Wei WuXian smirked happily at the memory of exactly how the love bites ended up on his body. Apparently having a song partially named after him was more arousing than he had previously thought possible. He spun qi through his body to speed up the healing.

His wedding clothing was unlike anything he could have imagined. As this was only a handfasting, there was no need for elaborate red robes…. The shirt was a pale Lan blue with embroidered white lotus flowers on them. His inner robe and trousers were black. And his outer robes were Jiang purple strategically slashed to allow glimpses of the black silk to show through. The sleeves were not tight to his wrists, unfortunately, but they were not absurdly long, either. He wouldn’t have to worry about dipping them into his food at least. “Why am I in purple?”

“You’re my heir,” Jiang WanYin hissed and fussed at how the outer robe draped. “You need to look like it. I won’t have you embarrassing YunmengJiang by wearing something you’d go night hunting in to your wedding.”

“Be still,” Jiang YanLi ordered while finishing up a braid. She was standing on a table in order to be tall enough to fix her sibling’s hair into a style appropriate for a mini-wedding. She fiddled with hair ribbons in matching purple, deciding how to incorporate them into her design.

“I could sit down,” Wei WuXian offered, looking at his shijie in the large mirror. ”I don’t want you to fall over.”

“You will wrinkle your robes.” She bit her lip and wound the braids and ribbon into a neat bun, the ribbon ends falling down his back. Her husband handed her a gold guan to surround the bun. The hair pin holding it together was also gold, and had several small amethysts dangling from the end. 

“ChengCheng…” Wei WuXian looked out of the corner of his eyes at his sect leader. “How is it I’m your heir when I’m older than you?”

“Well…” the sect leader continued fussing with the skirts even as his sister stepped off the stool into her husband’s arms. “My father never formally adopted you. In discussing your status with the Elders, it was decided that if A’Jie and I added you into the sect rolls as our parents’ adopted son, it would displace me as sect leader.”

“Well that’s obviously not going to happen,” Wei WuXian admitted without rancor.

“Because you’d not accept the position,” Jiang YanLi stated. “Not because you’re incapable or unacceptable.”

“So… instead… I adopted you.” Jiang WanYin looked smug. “Son.”

“Son?” Wei WuXian’s shocked visage was apparently hysterically funny; Jin ZiXuan started laughing. “I am not calling you Baba.”

“Fuqin is fine,” Jiang WanYin followed his brother-in-law and began chortling, holding his stomach. “Did you really not read the papers before you signed them?”

“No.” Wei WuXian pouted. 

Jiang YanLi patted her ‘nephew's’ arm. “You probably should…. There’s land you own now. And the rules of succession are spelled out. As well as your responsibilities to the sect.” She looked pensive. “You should probably also read your betrothal agreement before the official wedding takes place next spring.”

“I don’t need a second wedding,” Wei WuXian grumbled. “If you really need us to do our bows, we can do them this morning.”

“No!” Jiang WanYin yelled. “You’re going to get married properly! In public with all the clans looking on and seeing that YunmengJiang and GusuLan are not ashamed of your relationship. Besides, the seamstresses have already started embroidering your robes.”

Jin ZiXuan nodded. “LanlingJin also supports your relationship. I would suppose QingheNie will also. The four major sects publicly supporting your marriage will be better than a furtive handfasting.”

“Appearances,” Wei WuXian scoffed. “Politics.”

“Exactly.” the Jin sect leader agreed.

Lan Wangji fluffed his skirts, ensuring they hung precisely where he wanted them to be. He carefully separated two handfuls of hair to fall down his front instead of his back and scrutinized his appearance. He was wearing new clothing given to him by his soon to be sister-in-law. His shirt was a pale version of the Jiang purple embroidered with clouds. Symbolic. A visualization of the joining of our sects. Then his inner robe was white. And his outer robes were Lan blue, slashed to show the white underneath. His sleeve lengths were on the short side, though…. He smiled inwardly; his love would complain they were still too long and excessive and how come he didn’t dip them in his food or ink more often? 

“Are you nervous?” His older brother smiled gently.

“Why would I be nervous?”

“You’ve rearranged your hair six times since you finished dressing.” This time the smile was more than faintly demonic. “I don’t think I’ve seen you fiddle with your hair since you were five.”

“I am not nervous,” the younger man insisted, and flipped his hair over his shoulders. That looks better. Wei Ying will be able to see my whole outfit. “There is nothing to be nervous about.” Resolute, he pulled hair back around to his front. Wei Ying is used to seeing my hair like this. Sometimes he grabs it like horse’s reins when we’re kissing. He smoothed the strands down and flipped one side to his back. “Front or back?” he asked his brother. “Which looks better with these robes?”

“Are you sure you’re not nervous?” Lan XiChen chuckled. “You look handsome both ways, Didi. Back. That way everyone can see the full effect of your robes.”

Lan WangJi smoothed his hair back over his shoulders and twisted to see his back in the mirror. “My hair?”

“Your hair looks good. Relax. You are the most handsome man today. Wei WuXian’s jaw will fall to the ground when he sees you.”

“I’m sure Wei Ying is more handsome.”

He was right. Lan WangJi’s mouth dropped open in awe looking at his husband. He forced himself to close it before he literally started drooling like an idiot. Words failed him; they jumbled up behind his teeth and in his throat. Gorgeous is too bland. Breathtaking. Literally breathtaking. There was a tasteful line of Lan blue at his collar. Jiang YanLi…. Do you know what that does to me? Seeing him wearing my clan’s colors? He was aware in some remote corner of his brain that his body was reacting to seeing this beautiful man. 

The handfasting ceremony was simple: the two simply stood face to face, joined hands holding one end of their forehead ribbon, and then entwined the ribbon onto their partner’s wrist. 

It was supposed to be elegant. It was supposed to look like their hands were dancing.

Lan WangJi’s muscle memory took over and he reached across for Wei WuXian’s right hand. “Wait…” the other hissed to Lan QiRen. “You told me left hands?”

“It is left hands,” Lan QiRen scolded his nephew. “You’re both men. Women use their right hands.”

Right. Left hands. I’ve only ever practiced this as a child. With a girl. He looked down at his palm now vibrating next to his beloved’s left hand. I’m shaking. Why am I shaking? 

“We can do this,” Wei WuXian whispered as he began wrapping his ribbon… in the wrong direction.

“Other way,” Lan QiRen sighed. “Did you forget already?”

an WangJi’s right hand correctly wrapped his ribbon in the first pattern. He waited for his husband to follow. Not elegant. Not the dance of hands it’s supposed to be. Wei WuXian was biting his bottom lip as he copied the pattern. I want to bite you there, too. 

The second pattern was smoother; the two only bumped hands five times…. 

Wei WuXian looked at the mess on his husband’s wrist. It looked almost nothing like the elegant lace-like pattern on his own wrist. “I’m sorry. I should have practiced more.”

“Perfect.” Lan WangJi pushed the words past the blockage in his mouth. “Wei Ying is perfect.”

The third and final section looked better, comparatively, than the first two. Lan WangJi looked with absurd pride down at their hands tied together, at the clan ribbons wrapped around their wrists. This was, perhaps, his second favorite sight in his entire life. Maybe third. Mine. Forever mine. Yours. Forever yours. No one can take you from me now.  

He had no idea if there was a celebration dinner; there was supposed to be one. He didn’t remember eating. He didn't remember waiting for their families to leave them alone. He knew that there had to be time passing as his memory jumped from the morning sun trying to force its way through the clouds and drizzle and then it was rather dark out and the rain was pattering rather heavily on the roof. 

There was first the sight of their hands tied together and, immediately after, the sight of the naked Wei Ying below him, legs wrapped around his waist, arms tied to the bed posts with their forehead ribbons.

Chapter Text

Life together in Lotus Pier was infinitely preferable to life apart. Wei WuXian became Wei Laoshi for several classes: teaching swordsmanship and archery as well as talisman courses. Lan WangJi was not permitted to teach or audit any Jiang proprietary classes; he was assigned to teach horsemanship, basic meditation, calligraphy classes, as well as the guqin for interested students. They both led night hunts for varying levels of juniors. When they wanted harder night hunts, they went off on their own. 

Nights were spent in Wei WuXian’s childhood room while a manor appropriate for a married heir was built. When they weren’t teaching or out on a hunt, they could be found swimming in one of the lakes or rivers or sweating in the hot pool. 

After the mid-Autumn Festival came Jiang WanYin’s wedding to Wen Qing. Wei WuXian nearly teared up watching his shidi take his bows with a look of absolute adoration and disbelief on his face. She looked shocked and awed, like she wasn’t really sure what was happening, but was happy about it. It was the first time he’d seen Wen Daifu not completely in control of what was happening in a long time. “They’re a good match,” Wei WuXian whispered to his love. 

“Mmm.”

“I hope our wedding isn’t as gaudy as this. I like the color red; this is bordering on the absurd.” It seemed like every building in Lotus Pier was decorated in red. Even the dirt walking paths had been coated with some sort of red soil or dust.

They traveled to Cloud Recesses after the wedding. Both men were immediately reinstalled in their previous roles with the addition that Wei WuXian was invited on night hunts now. 

Wen Ning’s wedding was a smaller, though hardly less elaborate, version of his older sister’s. Wei WuXian was rather happy to see how blissful his friend looked, how pretty his new bride was. They were a good match.

The only thing that marred the festivities was seeing Wen Yuan pouting. “What’s wrong,” Wei WuXian sidled up to his young friend when the guests had moved to the newly erected banquet hall.

“Nothing.”

Wei WuXian was truly in awe at the spectacular pout. “There’s some reason you have that look on your face….”

The pout intensified. “Gufu says I have to live here now with Popo ‘cause Gugu is pregnant and sick and can’t take care of me properly. But Popo is sick, too, so she can’t take care of me. Shenshen says I can’t stay with them because she expects to get pregnant soon, too. Why does Gugu and Shenshen have to get pregnant? Why can’t Shushu and Gufu do it instead? I bet they wouldn’t get sick.”

Wei WuXian tried very hard to not react. He’d known Wen Qing was having a horrible pregnancy; lately, she spent most of her days in bed, only getting up to wash and vomit. She had sent her blessings for her brother’s marriage with Jiang Cheng rather than give them in person. Hopefully, her condition would ease shortly; he’d learned that many women became ill at the beginning of the pregnancy, but after a few months, the symptoms eased. He decided to ignore the part about men getting pregnant. “Your Shushu agrees?”

Wen Yuan’s relaxed, settled into a quivering bottom lip. “He says it’s complicated. He loves me, but he also loves Shenshen.”

Complicated? How is it complicated? A’Yuan is… seven? Eight? Old enough to need nominal supervision. He’ll be in classes all day. He just needs someone to make sure he eats his vegetables and washes before going to sleep. Someone to wipe his tears when he gets hurt and… make him feel like he’s wanted. 

Lan XiChen hmmed when asked about the problem. “It is complicated. The issue of succession always is. That’s probably one of the main reasons why Jiang FengMian didn’t adopt you. It’s why your current adoption agreement shows you inherit only if Jiang WanYin has no other male heirs. With Wen QiongLin… there are probably more than a few who would prefer to have Wen Yuan as their next sect leader rather than the child of a Lan woman. By keeping Wen Yuan away from the order of succession, he eliminates that problem. Not that Wen Yuan is a problem; he is a delightful child.”

Wei WuXian wanted to scream. He managed to keep his voice just on the edge of being frosty. “Neither Jiang Cheng nor Wen Ning will take A’Yuan into their households because it might interfere with their natural born children's’ inheritance?”

Lan XiChen nodded. “You’d understand better if you were in a position to have your own children.”

“You really think Lan Zhan would deny me if I said I wanted a child of my body? He wouldn’t be happy about me gracing another person’s bed, but he’d make sure our bridal bed was made with the softest sheets and he’d hope she’d conceive quickly and had an uneventful pregnancy and delivery.” Wei WuXian was trembling in his anger. He was just glad that he no longer spouted wisps of demonic energy.

He returned to Cloud Recesses, still practically vibrating with anger. He avoided the Jingshi to head directly to the practice yard and began working his way through his sword forms. Stupid . Idiots. He started slashing at one of the practice dummies. How can they treat A’Yuan like that? He stared at the dummy now lying in pieces of the ground. It hurts, Mama. Why does it hurt me? Why is my chest all filled with lumps? Why does it make me angry? 

What would you have done, Baba? If it had been Jiang Cheng and Shijie who had been orphaned and you were the sect leader with Jiang Shushu your former servant? Especially if Jiang Cheng had been older than me? Would you have kept them at arm’s length? Your friend’s children? Would you have adopted them or at least treated them as nearly your own? Would you have looked away, tacitly allowing Mama to whip Jiang Cheng for his infractions? 

Mama… would you ever have thought it might be a good idea to cut Jiang Cheng’s hand off to appease Wen Chao? 

I know you considered it, Madame Yu. I saw you. I know why you decided not to: I’m not stupid. I saw you calculate what appeasing both that Wang woman and your hatred would cost…. The price of my hand, possibly my life, would have been the lives of your children. Had the price been any lower, you would have had me pay it twice over, I’m sure.

“Wei Laoshi? Are you alright?” 

“Defend!” Wei WuXian attacked the senior disciple, driving him back with slow and methodical strokes. He was still only doing basic sword forms; the disciple lasted mere moments before his sword flew off. “Next,” he ordered, and faced the next disciple.

“Wei Ying…” the soft voice intruded into his internal monologue of loathing. “Wei Ying… spar with me.”

“Fine.” 

“Switch to a wooden blade.” Wei WuXian reluctantly sheathed Suibian and picked up a practice blade. They could hit harder with these without worrying about accidentally slicing a body part off. “Form one,” Lan WangJi ordered and the both stepped into position for the first Lan sword form. Three taps of their blades, Wei WuXian ducked and Lan WangJi’s blade swung through the now empty space. They backed up and repeated the exercise switching who ducked a few times. “Form two,” Lan WangJi announced and they stepped into the position to start.

I hated doing these sword forms as a fifteen year old. Why are we doing them again? Wei WuXian stopped following the prescribed motions, and, instead, moved into one of the basic Jiang attack patterns. Lan WangJi countered it neatly. Wei WuXian sped up the movement, flowing effortlessly from one form to another. When performed at the speed of a sword fight, the Jiang style was like water rippling over the ground and the opponent. The Lan style was more elegant, like calligraphy; each footstep, every movement of the blade, was carefully and meticulously placed through years of rigorous training. 

For more than two sichen, the river fought against the brush. One swirled and eddied while the other wrote a poem. For the disciples watching, it was entrancing: two masters of their craft dancing around each other, neither gaining an advantage, neither losing ground. 

Lan XiChen called a halt. “WangJi. Wei WuXian. It’s nearly curfew.”

“I haven’t won yet,” Wei WuXian growled and shoved sweaty hair away from his face and neck. 

“You can try again tomorrow,” the sect leader soothed. “For now, I’m sure you have a few bruises that can use a rest. Or perhaps a soaking in the Cold Pond.”

Wei WuXian shoved his practice blade into one of the holders, called Suibian to his hand, and strode off to the Jingshi. Once there, he bathed until the water was cold, and scrubbed his skin until the pink patches turned red and a few started bleeding.

“Wei Ying,” Lan WangJi knelt at the edge of the tub and gently removed the washcloth from his husband’s grip. “Talk to me.”

“You won’t understand.”

“Talk to me. Maybe I will.”

“I don’t even understand!” He got out of the tub and started drying himself, ignoring the bloody zones. “How can I make you understand when I don’t know why I’m angry!”

“XiongZhang said something about Wen Yuan made you upset.”

Wei WuXian glared at his husband. “Something about Wen Yuan? Something? His parents are dead. His grandmother is too old to care for him properly. And his other relatives want to shunt him away because….” I want to punch something. I want… I hurt so much and… I didn’t cause this. It’s not my fault. Why does it hurt so much, Mama?  

“Talk to me,” Lan WangJi urged, gathering his husband into his arms.

So Wei Ying talked. About being young and his parents leaving and not coming back and being scared and hungry and lonely and scared. About the kindness of strangers. About the abuse of strangers. Of stealing food and clothing. Or fighting older kids for a warmer or safer place to sleep. Of fighting dogs over scraps and nearly losing his limbs and his life. He talked about being found by Jiang FengMian and being taken in. Of dogs and trees and fighting with Jiang Cheng and soup. He talked about doing well in his studies: how, despite his late start, he soon caught up to Jiang Cheng, and then surpassed him. He talked of being whipped. Of being physically punished for any and all infractions, no matter how minor. Of being made Head Disciple over older disciples and them resenting him for it at first. He talked of being treated almost as a brother and a son, but not actually ever being allowed to be a brother or a son. Of being reminded constantly that he could never be a brother or a son. He talked of sacrifice and commitment and what it meant to be a Jiang while being reminded, daily sometimes, that he would never be a Jiang. 

He talked slower about the fall of Lotus Pier, burying his face in the safety of his love’s shoulder to hide his tears. Of flames and Zidian and his hand. Of being the reason the Wen attacked. 

“You’re not the reason,” Lan Zhan reminded him. “They were always going to attack. You were just an excuse.”

“I know.” Wei Ying pulled his head back and pointed to it. “I know I didn’t murder Jiang Shushu or Madame Yu. I know the Wen attacked because they had been planning it for months, perhaps years.” He pointed to his chest. “In here, I question…. If I had deliberately shot poorly at the archery conference and not drawn attention to myself. If I had kept my mouth shut and just did as I was told in the Indoctrination Session. If I hadn’t protected MianMian in that cave. If I had escaped with the others and left you behind with Jiang Cheng so he could have the honor of killing the XuanWu of Slaughter…. Would any of it have made a difference? Would more of my fellow disciples have survived? Would Jiang Cheng have gone back and lost his Core? Would I have felt responsible for that and searched for a way to restore him even though it meant I would be less?”

Lan Zhan sighed and tightened his hold on his lover. “Wei Ying has never been ‘less’. Never. Not before you had a Core. Not after you gave it away. 

“Nothing you have done, ever, has been the cause for Lotus Pier’s destruction. All of that, every bit, is because of Wen RuoHan, Wen Chao, Wang LingJiao, and Wen ZhuLiu and their disciples and soldiers. 

“Your actions, over and over again, show you are a protector, that you care. You shot well in the archery contest because to win would give YunmengJiang honor. You defended a woman you hardly know against a jealous woman because that is what a man should do. You gave your Core to Jiang WanYin because you love him as a brother and hate to see him hurting. You care, Wei Ying, for so many, with zero expectations that they will, in return, care for you. You love so many, with your body, mind, and soul, with no expectations they will ever love you back.”

Wei Ying burrowed as much as possible into the embrace. “I care. I love. It wasn’t my fault.” He wiped his suspiciously wet eyes against the nearest fabric. “Why am I like this? Why am I so angry right now?”

“A’Ying… you’re allowed to feel hurt. You’re allowed to see the injustice being done to XiaoYuan and be upset by it because of your own struggles or just because he’s an innocent child and has done nothing to deserve what’s happening to him right now. Try to sleep, my love. We can look for a solution in the morning.”

He fell asleep still questioning, still hurting.

Chapter Text

He woke, confused to see shadows on the wrong sides of the room. “Good afternoon, Wei Ying.”

“Why did you let me sleep so long? I missed classes?”

Lan Zhan nodded and settled on the edge of the bed. “I spoke with Shushu and XiongZhang early this morning. I said we were still sore from yesterday’s bout and needed the day to recover..”

“Ah.” Wei Ying sat up and rubbed the crusts from his eyes. “Sorry about that.” 

“Dress and eat. I have something to show you.” Lan Zhan refused to elaborate, so a curious Wei Ying was left with no recourse but to do as directed.

The ‘something to show’ was in Caiyi. “A donkey? You want to buy a donkey?”

“You said ‘someday’. I thought… why can’t someday be today?”

Wei Ying patted a gray head. “Someday means someday, so I guess today is a someday.”

Lan Zhan’s ears pinked up. “I also was thinking about a little one. How little does it have to be?”

“What do you mean ‘how little’?” Wei Ying’s heart started pumping faster. 

“I mean… does the little one have to be a baby? Or a toddler? Or… will an older child be good, too?”

“What older child are you referring to?”

Lan Zhan’s ears were bright red. “You want a little one and a donkey. We have the donkey now. We just need the child. And A’Yuan needs a family.

“I wrote to Wen QiongLin and Wen Qing and Wen Popo formally asking permission to adopt Wen Yuan.”

The return letter from Wen Qing was scathing: No. You may not adopt my nephew out from our family!

The one from Wen QiongLin was slightly more diplomatic: Right now, we do not have the ideal situation. But we are working on it. Wen Yuan will remain with us.

The letter from the boy’s grandmother the following day was… different. Lan Er’Gongzi, Wen Gongzi. I have given your idea much thought. While my preference is for my grandson to remain in our family, the truth is that what I want is irrelevant. What is important is what A’Yuan wants and needs. 

I spoke to him last night and again this morning. He wants a family of his own. He wants a mother and a father to call his own. He wants to be a son again. He would like to have siblings. A’Qing cannot be his mother. A’Ning cannot be his father. Not right now. Not, perhaps, for a few years. Perhaps never. I’m too old and ill to be the parent he needs. I may not live through the winter. I feel my husband is getting impatient for me to join him so we can enter the reincarnation cycle together. 

This doesn’t mean we don’t love him or don’t want him to stay with us. It just means that we cannot give him what he needs.  

I will grant you time to spend with A’Yuan where you may make your wishes clear to him and prove to him, and to me, that you will be good parents. To that end, I ask that you make a guest house available to both A’Yuan and I in Cloud Recesses for a month or so. We will see how you all get along. 

A’Qing and A’Ning are obviously not happy with my decision. However, since they are currently unable to give my grandson what he so dearly wants, and you are willing, I was able to talk them down. 

Please respond if you agree to this trial so we may begin preparations for the journey.

The Weifengshi was cleaned and two women servants were assigned to take care of the elderly Wen. Wei WuXian sat down to write two lists: one of how to be a good parent and one of what not to do as a parent. He was able to fill an entire paper easily of the latter while the former stayed blank. “I have no idea how to be a good parent, Lan Zhan,” he whined. “I know what makes a bad parent…. I’m going to mess up. I’m going to discover all new ways to be a bad father.”

Lan Zhan shook his head fondly. “Wei Ying is an expert at treating children well. Wei Ying is a good teacher. Patient. Loving. Demanding that students strive to do their best at their level and reach for the next.”

“That’s different! I send my students home after class! Their parents care for them outside of the sichen I have them with me.”

“No parent can know how to do it perfectly all the time. Even girls who helped their mothers with younger siblings must have times when they have no idea how to raise their own children. We have experience teaching. We will start there and make our way together, all three of us. A’Yuan can show us what he needs as we go along. You are an expert at being naughty and playing tricks. I am an expert at rigorously following the rules. We’ve learned together when the Rules must be adhered to and when they can, and should, be ignored.”

“I can’t fail at this, Lan Zhan…. I want it too much….”

“We won’t fail, Wei Ying. I promise.”

Being a parent, even under A’Yuan’s grandmother’s supervision, was… remarkably easy at times. A second bed was placed in the Jingshi with privacy screens set around it. Lan WangJi was responsible for waking the child for breakfast and sent him to morning lessons. Wei WuXian was responsible for putting A’Yuan to bed, making sure he washed properly, and was in bed at an appropriate hour. As the child was already used to being woken up for school and reminded to bathe daily and sent to bed at a reasonable time ( according to the adults at least), the new schedule was insufficiently different to cause problems. 

The rest of the time… was a different story.

Wen Yuan liked to eat meat. Being restricted to a bland vegetarian diet was a change he did not want to make. He was quite vocal about wanting to eat meat and food with flavor, especially during the lunch break. Not being allowed to talk during meals was also something he did not appreciate. He was very loud about hating that rule, too. The elders who monitored the children's’ lunches were swift to discourage Wen Yuan’s rule breaking by forcing him to stand or kneel facing the wall after having removed his lunch portion. 

He was placed in classes with children his own age. Which was good in that he made a few friends. And bad because his learning did not exactly match up with his peers and his teachers expectations. In a few classes, he was woefully unprepared while in others, he was significantly more advanced. His teachers punished him for not knowing something they had taught before he arrived and scolded him for having knowledge they hadn’t taught yet. 

It took only a few days for Wen Yuan’s emotions to overflow. “I hate it here,” the young boy’s pout was almost as magnificent as it had been at his uncle’s wedding.

“A’Yuan… what happened?” Lan WangJi asked.

“Everything I do is wrong! I know lots of math; Laoshi says I’m too proud. I don’t know GusuLan history; that Laoshi says I’m stupid. I had to kneel at lunch again and I didn’t even say anything! I was hungry and I was going to eat my food without talking but they made me kneel as soon as I got inside and I didn’t get to eat anything and I’m hungry and my tummy hurts and it wants real food not rice and slimy vegetables and squishy tofu. I had to kneel in guqin class because my fingers started bleeding and that Laoshi said I ruined the instrument but I didn’t! It already had the stains when I got it. I had to kneel during sword class because I held it like Shushu taught me. My knees hurt. My legs hurt. I’m hungry! I want meat buns! Spicy pork meat buns! I want to eat a chicken leg. I want fish head soup. I hate it here! I hate it! I want to go home!”

Lan WangJi stared in horror. “I had no idea.” He didn’t think Wei WuXian had any idea either…. Or the teachers would already be in the infirmary…. “Give me a few days to fix it. XianGege and I will talk to your teachers.”

The conversations with the classroom teachers were handled by Wei WuXian. The former demonic cultivator interrupted lessons to sit on the teachers’ desks. Twirling Chenqing, he reminded everyone that not knowing something because you were never taught it was nothing to be ashamed of. And possessing knowledge that other people hadn’t yet acquired was also nothing to be ashamed of. And he should never again hear of students being punished for things beyond their control. Especially those students coming into class with a different knowledge base. He also reminded the Lan teachers that, if A’Yuan decided to stay, he would be staying with Lan WangJi and Wei WuXian…. And that meant the child would be spending approximately half the year in Lotus Pier learning from their teachers. So… the Lan teachers had better get used to Wen Yuan consistently having a different skill set than his Lan peers. 

As far as threats made by the Yiling Laozu, these were considered rather mild. They were extremely effective, though. 

For meals… Lan WangJi started taking his lunch at the same time as Wen Yuan. The first day, the child grimaced at his soup bowl before valiantly trying to drink it. An elder immediately took Wen Yuan’s arm and started to pull him towards the wall. Lan WangJi calmly intruded, removed the elder’s hand with a grip of his own hard enough to leave bruises, and assisted Wen Yuan back to his seat. His message was no less clear than Wei WuXian’s even though no words were spoken. Give my son time to adjust. He’s not used to eating our food. He’s used to eating foods with flavor and texture. We made allowances for guest disciples in the lectures to make faces at the food we eat. Why are you stricter with a child than a teen?  

As for meat… there were always a few disciples coming back from a village or town who liked Wei WuXian enough to smuggle in meat dishes (and wine) from an inn. It wasn’t enough to have meat on the table every day. It made Wen Yuan’s eyes light up in happiness every time he saw a dish with meat steaming on their dining table. 

Lan Wangji spoke to the cooks about having dinners delivered to his room that had more flavor as well. “They are not used to bland food.” Dinners began arriving that were tasty and had texture even though they were still vegetarian. 

For Wen Yuan, the second week was much better than the first. 

In the third week, he introduced his new best friend, Lan Tian, to his prospective fathers. “Lan Tian and I got in trouble in art class. We were supposed to be drawing flowers.”

“I made the petals look like horses!” Lan Tian boasted. 

“And we laughed and Laoshi said we were being disrespectful and disruptive and we had to stay back and clean up for everyone.”

Lan Tian smiled at his new friend. “I liked cleaning up with you. It was the best sort of punishment!”

Chapter Text

In the fourth week, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi were called into a meeting with their son’s teachers. “These two… Lan Tian and Wen Yuan” the calligraphy teacher started. “When they work together to make progress, they are the best students.”

The math teacher added in, “When they work to make mischief? They can make Wei Gongzi’s antics seem like child's play.” The other teachers allied with one opinion or the other.

Lan WangJi frowned. “Wen Yuan often complains that he gets bored easily in some classes. It seems that he and Lan Tian only get in trouble in those classes.”

Wei WuXian nodded. “Bored kids have time to make mischief.”

“You would know,” the art teacher retorted. “Do you remember the drawings you produced in my class instead of what you were supposed to be doing?”

“Hey!” Wei WuXian yelled. “Lan Zhan is an excellent model to practice drawing on. He’s so much more interesting than landscapes.”

Lan WangJi’s ears pinked up. “Challenge the boys instead of giving them material they’ve already mastered. That should stop them from having time to cause trouble.”

At the end of the month, Wen Yuan still wasn’t able to make a decision. “Take all the time you need,” Wei WuXian offered. “We really want you to be our son. Wen Ning has been asking when you are coming back to GusuWen. Apparently, there’s another cousin willing to take you in.”

“She’s not from Dafan like the rest of them. She has seven children, four of them adults. Her husband died in the war,” Wei WuXian confided to his husband once the boy was asleep. “I’m sure A’Yuan can be happy there. It’s his family, after all.”

“He can be happy here, too,” Lan WangJi hoped.

The Lunar New Year approached. By then, Wen Popo was obviously dying. She was no longer able to walk and had little control over her hands and bowels. “I’m ready,” she told Wei WuXian. “I want to see my A’Yuan settled before I go.”

“I’m afraid of forcing him to make a decision,” he admitted.

“You’re afraid he might decide to go back to his uncle or aunt,” she corrected gently. 

“Will you take me home? To Dafan? I want to be buried next to my husband.”

“Of course,” he promised.

“Good,” she sighed and settled into her bed. “It won’t be long. I’ve been dreaming of him. He says he’s been waiting patiently. A’Xian? I have a request.”

“Yes.”

“When I’m ready, you will do it.”

Wei WuXian looked perplexed. “Do what?”

She looked insistent. “Send me to my husband.”

“You want me to kill you? I can’t do that!”

“You must. I’m tired. So tired. But my body… it doesn’t want to go just yet. So when I’m ready, send me home. Please.”

“Popo… I can’t do that. I can’t kill you! Don’t ask me.”

“You’re the only one I can ask. Will you condemn me to months of life like this? I can’t feed myself. I soil myself and can either bother those poor girls to clean me or choose to lay in my own filth. I’m as helpless as an infant. The only thing that works properly is my mind. This isn’t living, A’Xian. This is…” she sighed, and tears started falling. “I’m in pain. I want to go home. Help me. Please.”

He was helpless in the face of her pain. All he could do was nod his acceptance and hope that he would have the courage to do as she asked when the time came.

Wen Yuan threw a tantrum. “She can’t die! Popp can’t die!”

“Everyone dies,” Lan WangJi tried to settle the boy. “It’s nearly her time.”

“No!”

“Do you want her to keep hurting? She’s suffering, A’Yuan.” Wei WuXian added. 

“Make her better,” the child demanded. “Give her your qi. Make her healthy again.”

Wei WuXian sighed. “It doesn’t work that way for your Popo. She’s not a cultivator. We can pass her qi, but her body won’t know how to use the energy to heal her enough to make her well again.”

Lan WangJi stared at the floor. “Wen Yuan… your grandmother wants to know you are in a permanent place before she passes on.” He looked up, heart in his throat. “Will you allow Wei Ying and I to adopt you?”

“If I don’t let you adopt me… will Popo stay alive?” Wen Yuan asked hopefully.

“No.” Wei WuXian was firm. “Popo is going to die soon. You do not have to make a decision. No one is going to force you.”

“But she’s going to die sad?”

“Sad for you,” Wei WuXian corrected gently. “She is very happy to see her husband again.”

The journey to GusuWen took a few days; Wen Popo slept most of the trip in a well padded carriage. 

Chunjie was a bit subdued as the Wen waited for their matriarch to pass. 

Wen Yuan was happy to be back among his family again. He laughed and played with the other children. He talked happily with his Shushu and Shenshen about his studies in Cloud Recesses. 

As the days passed, though, he began to notice…. It wasn’t his Wen relatives who made sure his bowl had a balance of meat and vegetables. It wasn’t his uncle and aunt who wished him goodnight and made sure his blankets weren’t wrinkled. Not a single Wen adult stopped him from taking eight cakes at once, although they scolded the other boys his age who took only three or four. 

It was Wei WuXian who checked out his scrapes when he fell down playing games and hurt himself. It was Lan Wangji who deftly removed the large pieces of onion from his bowl at mealtimes; he could eat small bites, but the long stringy ones made him want to gag. It was Wei WuXian who caught him stuffing his pockets with greasy pancakes before he headed out with his cousins for an impromptu fishing trip and reminded him to wrap them well in oil paper or his clothing would get all greasy. And it was Lan WangJi who silently handed him clean clothes and directed him into a warm bath when he came back from said fishing trip wet, muddy, and shivering. 

His relatives… saw him as someone else’s son. Someone else’s duty. 

XianGege and JiGege… saw him as theirs. 

They didn’t see him as a burden, either. They wanted him to be their son. But they weren’t pushing him. Or telling him he had no choice. 

“Popo,” he sat at his grandmother’s side. “Am I bad?”

“Of course not,” she soothed.

“I think I want to stay with XianGege and JiGege.”

“That makes me happy,” she smiled weakly.

“What if I had said I wanted to stay here?”

“That would make me happy, too.”

“You can’t be happy both ways,” Wen Yuan frowned.

“I am happy that you have made the best choice for you. Family is important.”

“But if I choose to stay with XianGege, aren’t I leaving my family behind? Doesn’t that make you sad?” Wen Yuan was confused. He felt happy and guilty in equal measure.

“Family is so much more than blood relations, A’Yuan. People marry and create their new family while keeping their old families, right? If you decide to let Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi adopt you, it doesn’t mean your relatives here are no longer family…. It means your family is larger than before. You have more uncles and aunts and cousins.”

Wen Yuan thought about that. 

He thought a lot about it. About gaining another uncle and granduncle in Cloud Recesses. Of gaining a new aunt and uncle in Koi Tower. Of having two people who… loved him and wanted him to be their son. 

That night he watched as Lan WangJi carefully folded his clothes while Wei WuXian fussed with the bedding, making sure it was straight and the blankets lay just so. “XianGege?”

“Hm?”

“Can I call you A’Die? Or Baba?”

Wei WuXian’s voice sounded a bit hoarse, “I would love for you to call me Baba. If you want. Only if you want to.”

Wen Yuan nodded. “Then I’ll call you Baba. WangJiGege?”

Lan WangJi had stopped moving. “You can call me A’Die, if you want.”

“I want,” Wen Yuan stated. “I want you to be my fathers. Can I be your son?”

Wei WuXian knelt and held his arms out. “We would love for you to be our son. We’ll have to hold the official ceremony when we get back to Cloud Recesses.” 

Wen Yuan snuggled into the hug. “Baba,” he whispered, trying out the title. Lan WangJi joined them; Wen Yuan didn’t know what he was feeling, but he sort of thought he might cry and sort of felt like laughing. 

They made the announcement the following day. Wen QiongLin was openly hurt and slightly relieved. It was the best decision for his nephew, yes. He would be loved and raised well. It was incredibly obvious that Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi were besotted with the child. At the same time…. 

Wen Popo smiled happily. “I’m glad. So glad. A’Yuan… you chose well.” Later, she reminded Wei WuXian of their agreement.

“I can’t, Popo,” he pleaded. “Don’t ask me to kill you.”

“I’m ready.” She smiled in contentment. “I will sleep now. And you will keep your promise. I don’t want to wake up.”

“It’s not fair,” he complained. “Why me?”

“Because you understand, Erzi.”

“I don’t understand,” he pouted.

She patted his hand with her own trembling one. “You made the decision. I know you did. You had the choice to live or die and you chose to live. I can see it in your eyes sometimes. A’Yuan told me about that ghost boy in the Burial Mounds. I’ve heard stories that you kept cultivators from sending him on because he wasn’t ready yet. I heard that you held him in your arms while you helped him to move on. How can you deny me the same choice?”

“It wasn’t me who held him,” Wei WuXian muttered. “And Chang Wei was already dead. You’re different. You’re alive.”

“I’m ready, Wei WuXian. Hold my hand until I’m asleep and then…”

He held her hand. For hours. Until someone came in to feed her dinner and found him sitting next to her cold body. 

Wen QiongLin knelt next to him. “Popo told me what she asked you to do.”

“I didn’t,” Wei WuXian insisted. “I couldn’t.” He wasn’t sure if he was lying or telling the truth. “She passed all on her own.” It might have been the truth. 

Chapter Text

The Wen clan left to bury their matriarch in their Dafan village. Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi returned to Cloud Recesses.

Immediately upon their return, they were invited to a trial for two senior disciples who had been caught breaking through the wards. Wei WuXian was one of a few who pleaded for leniency. While the others were focused on this being the first offense, he took a more pragmatic route. “It’s your own fault they were able to breach the wards,” he stated.

“What?” came from most of the elders’ mouths.

“I showed you they were useless when I was fifteen. The only reason I got caught was because Lan WangJi happened to be right where I crossed over. If I had picked a better spot, you’d never have known. Then Wen Xu’s cultivators showed you I was right. And yet in the years since, you have done nothing to update them. Is it any wonder that some of your disciples take advantage of your poor security?”

Lan XiChen immediately demanded a demonstration of how the young Wei WuXian had crossed the wards. Wei WuXian led the group to the nearest barrier and tossed a handful of dirt. “See how the particles pass through?” He next threw a minuscule pebble which bounced off. “That the dirt and dust goes through but the pebble doesn’t shows there are holes in the wards and they are bigger than dust but smaller than the pebble, right? So… you just…” He reached out with a bit of energy and poked at the barrier. “You just find one of the holes and carefully make it bigger. The alarms are set to go off if the wards are torn. But just enlarging one of the spaces, like so,” he made a series of complicated hand motions, and stepped through the ward, “you haven’t actually broken anything.” He let the hole shrink back down. “No alarms go off. And anyone walking the perimeter looking for evidence of a breach won’t find anything.”

Lan XiChen examined the ward. “You figured this out at fifteen?” 

“Before then,” Wei WuXian corrected. “It’s not like Cloud Recesses’ was the first ward I occasionally needed to get through. Although, I don’t think that’s how those seniors did it.” He gave them a wink. “I suppose they did it the easy way?” He jumped up into a tree and rapidly climbed to the top of the study branches. He used qinggong to then jump lightly onto the higher branches and leaves and then leaped as high as he could over the barrier to land on his feet. “The barrier is tall, but a good cultivator can easily get over it.” 

“How do you know that’s how they did it?”

“Well, they both have leaves from a similar tree in their hair. And that one’s sleeve,” he pointed at the taller of the two disciples on trial, “has burn marks similar to ones I expect to see when it touches the ward.”

The natural result of having proven that the Cloud Recesses’ wards were easy to breach was to be assigned to find a way to make them more secure. Later that afternoon, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi searched the library for every book and scroll on wards. “I’m surprised you’re not more of an expert,” the older one mused.

“Why would I be?” Wei WuXian huffed his bangs away from his face and opened the book on the top of his pile. “The Jiangs wouldn’t let me near the arrays that control their wards. What little I know came from the introduction class I took at… twelve, I think, and the half day lecture your uncle gave here.”

“You had wards at the Burial Mounds.” Lan WangJi had yet to open any of his books.

“I improvised,” the younger muttered. “I took what little I knew and… played until something worked.”

“You improvised,” Lan WangJi lowered his head to focus on his own research. “You never cease to amaze me with what you can do when you want to do something.”

Researching and putting theories into practice occupied most of their time to the point where the ache from missing their son was dulled. Every child walking really fast (also known as running) past the library had Wei WuXian looking up, hoping to see Wen Yuan. Every child speaking more loudly than what Lan rules dictated was appropriate (also known as yelling) had Lan WangJi searching for their son.

Fifteen days after Wen Popo’s death, Wei WuXian couldn’t concentrate on his scroll. He alternated between fidgeting in his seat and staring mindlessly towards the front gate.

“Wei Ying…” Lan WangJi disrupted his husband’s meandering thoughts. “Do you want to go to DafanShan? We should pay our respects.”

“Yes.” Wei WuXian scrambled to his feet, looking more like his fifteen year old coltish self than a man in his twenties. “Let’s go pray and offer some paper money?”

They decided to leave the donkey in his stall in the Cloud Recesses’ stables; they could fly and be with their son that much faster.

The village nestled at the base of DafanShan was… lifeless. But not empty. Wei WuXian knelt next to one of the bodies and checked for a pulse. Wordlessly he closed the body’s eyes, as he had done with the previous five bodies. “Lan Zhan…” he called loudly, “Where… is? Have you?” He can’t complete his question. All the bodies so far are adults, all women except for one elderly man. 

Lan WangJi emerged from the last decrepit building on the street. “No children. I count seventeen.”

Wei WuXian swore under his breath. Almost the entire GusuWen clan had traveled to Dafan to bury their matriarch. Someone had attacked the funeral goers, killed these people, and kidnapped the rest. “Who would do this?” He stood up, wiping the crusted blood from his hands onto his skirts. “We’ve been at peace almost since Wen RuoHan died. The only ones who attacked Wen Ning’s family were the Jins….” He raised frightened eyes to his husband’s. “He’s dead, right? That asshole is really dead?”

“Jin ZiXun was killed. As was Su MingShan,” Lan WangJi affirmed. “Jin GuangShan should still be locked up in Koi Tower. Jin GuangYao….”

“Is only fake dead.” Wei WuXian swore a few more times. He sent a spiritual bunny off. “Did you teach A’Yuan how to make a spiritual messenger? I didn’t.”

“No.”

Wei WuXian’s swears became more inventive the longer it took for a reply to his bunny to return. “Wen Ning isn’t answering.” I’ll contact Jiang Cheng. Can you tell your brother?” He was already crafting his messages, first to his ‘father’, and then a second to Nie HuaiSang. He was debating what to send to Jin ZiXuan via Jiang YanLi when a message returned to Lan WangJi.

“XiongZhang is gathering a group of disciples. He’ll meet us later tonight. He wants to know if you’re going to tell Koi Tower.”

“We at least need to confirm Jin GuangShan is locked up.”  A messenger fan came wafting towards his face. “Nie HuaiSang is collecting all his intel on Jin GuangYao. He’ll meet us wherever we decide is a good….” Wei WuXian looked at his husband. “We need a meeting spot.”

“Here is as good as any place.” Lan WangJi looked around at the bodies strewn on the street. “We can get a start on burying these while our allies make arrangements. Whoever did this kidnapped over a hundred people. It’s going to be hard to hide them. The more people we have with us….”

“The better the advantage when we finally find the assholes. I will relish taking them apart bone by bone,” Wei WuXian promised. More messenger bunnies hopped off to tell the other sects to meet at the village at the base of DafanShan. 

Jiang YanLi’s return lotus flower message stated Jin GuangShan was still locked up; she had verified it herself. They would investigate his jailers to see if he was in contact with Meng Yao somehow. Jin ZiXuan was going to send disciples under the command of Luo QingYang. 

By nightfall, there were more than five hundred cultivators stationed in the village awaiting directions. In what was assumed to have been the village chief’s house, Nie HuaiSang spread out the maps he’d brought. “My best sources say he’s here,” he pointed to a town less than half a day's flight from the Nightless City. “After Xue ChengMei’s death, activity reduced to almost nothing. Just the regular comings and goings of normal townsfolk.”

“Have you verified that Jin GuangYao is there?” Lan XiChen looked like he was trying to memorize the map.

Nie HuaiSang nodded. “As of three days ago, he was in his house. I have confirmation from five spies. I have sent them a request for an update, but have not heard back from them.”

“Three days?” Wei WuXian was trying to keep his emotions in check. “Three days matches the time of death, more or less, for the GusuWen here.” Three days! If only I hadn’t waited. If only I had gone with them. If only…. Lan WangJi’s arms wrapped around his waist; he imagined he could feel similar emotions and thoughts coming from his spouse. We did nothing wrong, he told himself. It was proper to send A’Yuan to the funeral. It was proper to trust Wen Ning would protect him. We had no way of knowing Meng Yao would strike the GusuWen. 

Jin ZiXuan stepped forward. “I will be returning to Koi Tower tonight. I need to re-examine my people, to make sure there are none of my half-brother’s sympathizers left. Unfortunately, every time we make a sweep, we find more spies. I trust Luo QingYang. She trusts the cultivators she brought. Jiang YanLi will be coordinating supplies and provisions through Luo Guniang.

Lan and Jiang scouts left early the next morning following the trail left behind. Kidnapping approximately a hundred people could not be done stealthily. Wagons left deep ruts in the road and deeper ones in the grass when they left the roads behind. Horses left their tracks and droppings. And the kidnapees left… stuff. A few seemed to be ripping their robes and casually dropping the pieces as they walked. Or they walked alongside bushes and brambles, leaving broken branches and patches of threads behind. For cultivators used to looking at subtle clues to find yao, the signs left behind by Meng Yao’s people and the GusuWen were easily read. 

Chapter Text

The allies had discovered in the Sunshot Campaign, an army moved only as fast as its food. Neither Wei WuXian nor Lan WangJi were willing to wait for the supply wagons. Every cultivator was asked to fill qiankun pouches with at least three days worth of food. The supply wagons could trundle after them. 

For two days the slowly increasing in size (as more cultivators were sent to put an end to Meng Yao) army flew after the scouts. On the third day, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi stood in the Qishan town. The empty Qishan town. No being, living or dead, roamed the streets. There was plenty of evidence that the people who lived there evacuated quickly; fresh food had barely started molding. The wagon that had held at least some of the captives was abandoned in a street. “Shit,” Wei WuXian swore. “Where did they go now?” No tracks left the town. There were no stray bits of clothing strewn outside the path the scouts had followed. 

Nie HuaiSang was swearing. “Six days ago this place was full of people. My spies haven’t reported any changes.”

“Maybe they were compromised,” Lan XiChen offered. “Or changed allegiance.”

Nie HuaiSang sent a withering look at the elder jade. “My spies would never.” He performed an elaborate fan dance and looked blankly at something invisible. “They’re this way.”

“Who?” Wei WuXian tried to see what his friend was looking at.

“My people. I put a tracking spell on each and every single one of them. They’re over there.” He started walking, face setting into a very disgruntled look. 

“Hop on.” Wei WuXian held out a hand to help his friend step onto Suibian. “I’m faster than walking.” They all flew for a quarter of a sichen before Nie HuaiSang indicated they should dismount.

“They’re here,” he pointed to a fresh mound of dirt. The dirt was swiftly removed, displaying the corpses of approximately twenty women, one child, and the Nie spies. Wen Ning’s pregnant wife was, thankfully, not one of them.

Wei WuXian frowned. “Why doesn’t he want women? As far as I can remember, this accounts for almost every woman in GusuWen. Did he keep only the pregnant ones alive? He certainly didn’t discriminate for beauty….” Several of the women in the burial pit had been beautiful when alive.

“He hates women?” was one suggestion.

Lan XiChen shook his head. “Jin GuangYao isn’t like that.”

“He can’t use them,” Mo XuanYu spat into the dirt. “This half brother of mine uses people and discards those who are unimportant.” When Lan XiChen gave him a look , he protested. “You never lived in Koi Tower. I did. You haven’t heard all the stories of what he did. Even reducing the obvious embellishments? People were either useful and therefore used, or not useful and therefore discarded like trash. You saw for yourself what he did to my cousin! Ji ZiXun was useful when he was able to successfully plant rumors about Wei Laoshi. When he was no longer useful, he was eliminated. Everyone thinks Meng Yao killed Su MinShan for the same reason.”

Nie HuaiSang hid his mouth with his fan. “Actually… Su MinShan was killed by my people.” He paused, appraising the young man thoughtfully. “I do like the way you think, though. So what use does he have for children and men?”

Wei WuXian brushed his nose. “We know, or we strongly suspect, he was working with Xue ChengMei on demonic cultivation. So…” he started pacing, one hand gripping Suibian tightly. “If I’m going to set up a sect of demonic cultivators… we all know it’s easier to teach cultivation to children than it is to adults.”

“That explains the children,” Lan XiChen agreed. “What about the men? If we use your logic, they are too old.”

“I’m sure a few will be able to pick it up? After all, I mastered it without a teacher when I was seventeen. Xue ChengMei was a teenager, too, but Meng Yao is even older than I am. So…” the finger rubbed against his nose again and again. “He’ll be testing the men to see who is able and willing to try pick it up and the rest….”

“The rest will be experimented on by demonic cultivation or simply executed. So where did they go? And how did they get there?” Lan XiChen asked the question swirling through all of their minds.

Back in the village, they searched carefully, looking for any hints of where Meng Yao had gone and how he had managed to evacuate everyone without leaving a trail. As they searched, more scouts were sent out in ever expanding circles looking to see if the captives had been able to leave any clues as to the direction they had traveled.

Two days of fruitless searching passed before Mo XuanYu tugged on Wei WuXian’s robes. “Laoshi? I’m not sure if this is important or not.”

“What is it?” Wei WuXian failed to keep his voice free of anger and exasperation; the younger man shrank in response.

“It’s in here,” he whispered and pointed to what looked like the village head’s house. He led the way inside to a full length mirror. “There are a bunch of mirrors that look just like this in Koi Tower,” he added in a louder voice. “They’re not just mirrors, though. The ones I’ve seen are called portals. They’re just plain mirrors until you activate them, then you can step through to another room or space. I guess they’re like doorways, but the connected rooms don’t have to be near each other.”

“Portals?” Wei WuXian asked, excited. He examined the mirror. “How do they work? How do you tell where it goes?”

Mo XuanYu straightened up a bit. “Each portal in Koi Tower is set to a specific location. The mirrors match each other? Linked pairs? You have to memorize where each one leads, I think, since I haven’t found that information written down anywhere. As for activation… most of them are blood locked. There’s a simple spell to activate them, there’s something about checking for the correct blood, and then either the portal opens or it doesn’t. The main family can use them as we please, but outer disciples can’t.”

“Genius child! How did you manage to learn so much in such a short period of time?” He slapped the younger boy on the shoulder, smiling his appreciation. “Blood locked?” Wei WuXian stopped his explorations to look at the young Jin. “So… this might require pure Jin blood?” He grinned, feeling happier than he had in days. “Jin blood! Would Meng Yao expect that we brought you along? Go ahead. Give it a try.”

“Wei Laoshi?”

“Try to activate it. Don’t step through. Let’s just see if Meng Yao was overconfident this time.”

Wei WuXian’s mind was rapidly thinking of how those portals could be used, the obvious being sect leaders being able to step through a doorway and arrive at another sect. Of course, there would have to be some sort of safeguard to prevent just anyone from accessing the portals. And there would need to be restrictions on who could use the other portals. But maybe… a secure room somewhere neutral? He smiled as he thought of the answer. Yes. A building designated for inter-sect meetings. Blood lock the portals to the meeting place. Or… lock them to certain keys? Then it wouldn’t have to be the sect leader and blood family restricted. Especially in the instance where the sect leader dies without blood heirs…. He scowled as Mo XuanYu activated the mirror; a wavering sheen appeared on its surface. Those portals would have been helpful during the war. If we’d been able to send the injured back to an infirmary away from the battlefield? A steady supply of fresh food delivered to the cooks? Those portals would have to be bigger than a mirror. And portable. He started to think about making a large doorway… something with hinges perhaps? So you could fold it down to something manageable when it wasn’t needed? Being able to send us home for a few days to clear our heads of the stench of death would have been very nice. His scowl grew fiercer. Proprietary cultivation techniques should be regularly reviewed to see if they should be widely distributed. Common sense should prevail over ‘I discovered this, so I get to keep it to myself and my heirs’. 

“Deactivate it,” he instructed the younger man. “I’ll send a message to Jin ZongZhu… we need to know where this portal goes before we send anyone through.” He quickly sent a bunny to his brother-in-law (uncle?) asking the sect leader to come to the Qishan village. 

It took another day for Jin ZiXuan to fly in. Another day of anxiety over what Meng Yao and his cohort could be doing to A'Yuan and the rest of the GusuWen. Another night of pacing furiously trying to think of where Meng Yao could take a couple of hundred men and children and expect to be left in peace…. He wanted to just step through the portal and face what was there. Lan WangJi wisely got him to admit that the other side of the portal was probably guarded and what’s there just might be his death. 

Wei WuXian was exhausted, both mentally and physically. He worried about his son, his friends. Guilt pooled in his veins; pain settled into his bones. I failed you, A’Yuan. I hope you know we’re coming for you. I hope you know we won’t rest until you are safe in our arms again. Until your captors are all dead and your family is rescued. You must be so afraid and worried. 

We’re coming, little one. Stay with Wen Ning and we’ll be there soon.

Chapter Text

If the days had been busy with searching and hoping and needing to find his son, the nights were worse. At night, the nightmares came... dreams of seeing his son’s dead body. Sometimes simply strangled, dark finger marks circling his neck. Other times, he was eviscerated. Or had his head chopped off. Sometimes Wei WuXian could see the child’s ghost sitting by its corpse, crying loudly… screaming his hatred. And then turning that hatred on the men who failed him. 

Nightmares of what he might find when they finally met up with Meng Yao interspersed with his nightmares from the Burial Mounds and the war. 

One particularly interesting nightmare had Wen Yuan’s fierce corpse sitting by Wei WuXian’s side on the faraway mountain where he gave Jiang Cheng his Core as the fierce corpse Wen Ning ripped open his abdomen with rancid, knife sharp, fingernails and ripped out his Core. “You deserve that, Baba,” the boy intoned. “You can’t even keep a child safe. You don’t deserve to be a cultivator. You don’t deserve that Core. I hope it kills you and you are sent to Hell with no option, ever, for reincarnation. Just eternal punishment.”

Lan WangJi’s nightmares were slightly less ghoulish, but no less intense and self-deprecating.

There were two ways to stop the nightmares: one, obviously, was to not fall asleep in the first place, and the other was to make themselves so tired that they didn’t have the ability to dream. Wei WuXian found a few fellow cultivators who enjoyed the more brutal types of street fighting; bouts where they’d all stumble off to their bedrolls, thoroughly exhausted, covered in blood, bruises, and at least one broken bone, kept the nightmares at bay. After a healer told them to stop being stupid and wasting their qi on healing when they would need to be at full strength during the upcoming battle, Lan Zhan offered up his own method for exhausting each other. 

His dreams from his youth of fucking Wei Ying inspired their nightly activities: brutal sex where the receiver was not prepared and no oils were used to ease the way. It was raw and painful and bloody and required more visits to the healer and lectures on properly taking care of their partner. Wei WuXian trying to explain that this was each of them taking care of his husband was ignored. The price of tears in their rectums compared to the nightmares of seeing his son repeatedly raped or mutilated or rambling as a fierce corpse? He’d pay that price every day of his life to keep his son safe from harm. 

Jin ZiXuan arrived bearing more bad news. Jiang WanYin had wanted to go with him; unfortunately, the continued stress over losing her grandmother and then not knowing what was happening to the rest of her family plus grieving over the dead, had sent Wen Qing into early labor. “The other doctors and midwives at Lotus Pier are trying to halt the labor. It’s early. She might deliver a stillborn, they say. Or the baby might die soon after being born. No one knows for certain.”

Wei WuXian added Wen Qing to Meng Yao’s tally. “Death by lingchi will be too good for him.” 

Jin ZiXuan’s examination of the mirror/portal was much more efficient than Wei WuXian’s. “I would like to ask everyone, except for Mo XuanYu, to leave the building.”

“Why me?” his younger brother asked, surprised.

Jin ZiXuan straightened his back. “Family secrets.”

Wei WuXian looked intrigued and begrudgingly left the room to the brothers. What kind of family secrets does that mirror hold? Does Jin GuangYao know them? Whatever the elder was imparting to the younger didn’t take long. The others were called in to see that the mirror no longer reflected the room it was in: it showed a reflection of somewhere else. 

Jin ZiXuan ignored his allies’ questioning looks. “I see eight guards around the connected portal. There may be more that we can’t see.” 

What they could see was… a room. A pretty plain room with no obvious decorations to lead the allies to understand where the hostages were being kept. Wooden walls, an empty bookcase, the edge of a window, scuffed floors. And eight men milling around.

Lan XiChen stepped closer, peering into the portal. “Is that…? Look at the top of the window frame? Does that look like…? I think it is?”

Nie HuaiSang pushed his way to the front of the mirror. “I see… a sun? Is that what you see?”

“A sun?” Wei WuXian swore under his breath. “They’re in the Nightless City? I thought that place was razed to the ground. 

“The palace was dismantled. Most of the city was left intact,” Lan XiChen corrected. “After all, there were still people living there.”

“So… we fly to the Nightless City, rescue the GusuWen and kill the demonic cultivators.” Wei WuXian sketched out the plan. “A couple dozen of us can remain here and attack via the portal.”

“Whoever stays here is on a suicide mission,” Jin ZiXuan protested. “We can’t know how many of those cultivators are guarding the room! Only one person can step through the portal at one time.”

“One person is all that’s needed.” Wei WuXian looked at his brother-in-law, red creeping into his eyes, swirls of resentful energy winding their way around his feet, caressing his legs, playing with the folds of his skirts. “How many of Meng Yao’s people are really prepared to fight the Yiling Laozu? Jiang Cheng and Lan WangJi know… They were there; they saw the aftermath of what my ghost army did to Wen Chao’s men. I only had about thirty at the time I was pursuing him and Wen ZhuLiu. When Mo Gongzi opened the portal earlier, I could feel them… Wen RuoHan’s victims. They were never pacified after the Sunshot Campaign. Never sung to an eternal sleep or a return to the reincarnation cycle. They hunger for justice against Wen RuoHan. They yearn for closure. I can give them… something , at least. Bodies to vent their anger and hurt on. And then I can help them move on.”

Wei WuXian held his ground against his husband, brothers-in-law, and friends alike. “Yes, I'm aware I could lose my Core,” he assured Nie HuaiSang. “It’s a small price to pay for the safe return of the DafanWen and my son.” To Lan XiChen, he added, “I will die to keep my son safe from harm. Do you not understand that? They are… A’Yuan is worth… everything.” To Lan WangJi, he pleaded. “You know this is the only way. You will attack the Nightless City from the outside and I’ll attack from the inside. I promise I won’t take stupid risks. I swear I will be careful. I will see you at the end and go home with our son. I promise.” In the end, he was left behind with a small group of YunmengJiang cultivators including Mo XuanYu.

As midnight approached, Wei WuXian asked Mo XuanYu to open the window in the portal. Another group of men, six this time, stood guard over their end of the mirror. “What can you tell me about the portals? The more I know, the better this will go.”

“I don’t know a lot, Wei Laoshi,” Mo XuanYu sounded small and weak. “I didn’t receive the best education in Koi Tower.”

“Anything will be helpful,” Wei WuXian reassured the younger man. “Without giving up Jin secrets, of course.”

“Jin secrets?” Mo XuanYu’s entire demeanor changed from unsure to spiteful. “Why would I feel the need to protect a sect that doesn’t want me? Jin ZiXuan seems almost nice. But I know that he wishes our father never met my mother. 

“So… portals. Each portal is a single object. This side and that one? It’s the exact same mirror.”

“Two mirrors are actually one mirror,” Wei WuXian frowned. “How can two objects in two different locations be the same object?”

“I have no idea, Wei Laoshi. But that’s one of the secrets to the portals. Both sides are a single mirror.”

Wei WuXian scrunched his face up in utter confusion. “But I clearly see a front and a back to this mirror.”

Mo XuanYu shrugged. “I don’t know how the spell works, but that’s some of what Jin ZiXuan showed me earlier. This mirror and that mirror are the exact same mirror. If you crack the surface here, the same crack will appear on the other. If you open the portal from this side, it opens the portal on the other side, too. The only time they’re separate is when we spell the surface to be a window. Somehow that stays only on one side.”

Wei WuXian stared at the portal, as if that would force it to give up its secrets. “One mirror existing in two different spaces simultaneously….” he mused. “What else could you do with that….” 

What else benefits from being in two locations at the same time? Other than those portals I thought of before…. No sense thinking about that now. I have a job to do. He focused on monitoring the guards’ movements. There was no obvious formation. The guards appeared to wander or sit as they pleased. And only the same six were ever visible. “Open the portal,” he ordered the younger man.

“It’s not time yet,” Mo XuanYu protested. “We’re supposed to wait for Lan ZongZhu’s signal!”

“You can wait for his signal,” Wei WuXian reassured. “Until then? Open the portal for me.”

“He’ll kill me for letting you through before it’s time.”

“I’ll be saving lives by going through first. Meng Yao doesn’t know what I did during the war. He read about it in reports, yes. But a report doesn’t give the whole picture does it? It doesn’t tell you exactly what I did. Or how I did it, does it? Let my ghost army fight Meng Yao’s demonic cultivators. Let him see first hand exactly how… vicious demonic cultivation can be. Open the portal.”

As the boy activated the portal, Wei WuXian started gathering in resentful energy. Not surprisingly, this Wen village was full of it. My friends, he smiled as the cold, formless tendrils wound their eager way around his body, not unlike a cat or snake…. Baba, Mama? Are you there? I… lost your new grandson a few days back. It wasn’t my fault, but at the same time, it was. I should have stayed with him. I’m going to get him back at any cost. And I do mean any cost. Will you be upset if I lose my Core again? After everything my friends did to give me a new one? After all the effort I put in to make myself stronger? I don’t want to die…. But if I do? Will you be there for me? I don’t want to die alone. Will you stay by my side as I fight to get my son back? Will you stay by my side if… if I have to pay the ultimate price for his safety? 

And after… Please watch over Lan Zhan and A’Yuan. They’re going to need all the love you can give them if… if I die. Baba… please take care of Lan Zhan. Please help him to be the greatest father in the whole world. Mama? Please help A’Yuan. Please. He must be so scared…. He’s lost his grandmother and so many relatives and friends. Plus being kidnapped for a second time? He’s going to need so much love and support to help him recover. I… I want to be there for him. And I will try. But if I can’t? Will you? Please? 

Maybe you can find Lan Zhan’s mother and A’Yuan’s parents and Popo? Between the six of you… there should be enough love for them both.

Chapter Text

Wreathed in shadows, Wei WuXian stepped through the portal. 

Killing the six guards was as simple as sending out six tentacles of resentful energy and looping them around the guards’ necks. Quiet. Efficient. Merciful. They were probably the lucky ones. 

He could feel the city’s dead battering at him, screaming their anger and hate and need for revenge, but it was muted. As if someone had placed a protective ward to keep them out. “Smart of you,” he hissed as he left the mirror’s room. “I wasn’t expecting that… No matter.” Change of plan…. I need to find the array for the ward and take it down first. If Lan XiChen’s forces get to it first? Depending on how it’s set up, trying to breach it could be disastrous.

As he picked his way through the city, searching for either the missing Wen or the array, he encountered small patrols of Meng Yao’s demonic cultivators. He had to be quick and eliminate all but one in each patrol. The last one needed to be interrogated before he, too, was killed. After the fourth group lay dead, Wei WuXian had a pretty good idea of where the ward’s array was; not surprisingly, Meng Yao didn’t casually provide this information to his grunts. He also had a complete picture of where the GusuWen were being kept. The wards need to be taken down first. I can use the help crushing Meng Yao’s army and liberating Wen Ning’s people. If the array is still up… I can’t use the dead and Lan Zhan can’t come through.

The array’s building was heavily guarded. Nearly one hundred men stood alert all around it. Wei WuXian smiled. Is that all? So few to guard such an important building? He lifted Chenqing to his lips and began playing softly: commanding the cultivators he’d just killed to rise and follow him. Forty dead men following Chenqing’s sweet song could not overwhelm all one hundred living cultivators. But, as during the war, every one of Meng Yao’s men that died rose again to fight for Wei WuXian. The battle, of course, was loud and drew interest from others who then joined the fray. Wei WuXian, again shrouded in yin energy, snuck into the building and locked it. There were a handful of guards inside, too. All but one were swiftly executed. “How do I turn the array off,” he demanded of the remaining guard. Tell me, and I’ll let you live. Lie to me, and even my corpse will kill you.”

Stammering, the guard wisely chose to try to live. 

Taking down the wards was surprisingly simple. “This is easier than breaching the wards at Cloud Recesses! Meng Yao, I thought you were supposed to be smart…  someone who knows how to find the right people. You couldn’t even find a good array maker? I made stronger ones than this when I was ten!”

Winds formed by yin energy whipped through the building, destroying everything in its path. Anyone else who wished to set wards around the Nightless City would have to start from scratch. 

With the wards shut down, Lan XiChen’s army was free to enter the city once they got there. And Wei WuXian was free to encourage the city’s dead to rise and follow him. 

They came by the hundreds, until there were thousands, and still the dead rose to his call. Young, old, men, women, limbs missing, heads shattered, chests crushed, decaying flesh dropping to the ground. Whatever had sent them to their graves was insufficient to keep them there. Not when there was a promise of revenge. That they would have to vent their anger against others than the QishanWen in general, and Wen RuoHan or his sons in particular, was acceptable. For more than a few, this was an opportunity to take their revenge on the man who tortured them to death: Meng Yao. They swept through the city to where the Wen were kept, eliminating all who stood in his way. 

The living area of the Fire Palace was in ruins. The Allies had removed every bit of value from it before setting fire to it. Anything left standing once the ashes cooled was torn down and smashed to pieces. Left alone, for the most part, however, were the dungeons. 

The Wens were being kept in the dungeons.

Wei WuXian led his army to the fire scorched walls and set them to dismantling the stones. The first cell to be breached showed seven corpses that would not respond to his call. He whistled to his army to stop, then knelt next to the bodies and bowed his head. “I’m so sorry. I was too late.” He recognized them as being men he’d seen in passing while visiting Wen Qing and Wen Ning. “Meng Yao… they have done nothing to deserve this.”

A voice answered. “Does anyone ever really deserve their fate?” Through the bars on the far side of the cell, Meng Yao stood calmly. “They had a choice. I asked them to assist me in learning how to control yin energy like you do. They chose….” He shrugged and smiled, dimples showing in the dim light. “The choice was to be either the one doing the experiments or the ones being experimented on…. Unfortunately, I don’t have as light a hand as Xue ChengMei does. Or did. I assume you killed him?” Wei WuXian nodded. “Such a shame. He was very… devoted to the cause.”

“He was insane,” Wei WuXian rebutted. 

“Ahh… that, too,” Meng Yao agreed pleasantly. “Well, unlike my deceased friend, you are going to let me walk out of here alive.”

“Never.”

“I knew you’d say that. So predictable. My insurance is over there.” He waved towards the far end of the hallway he stood in. “Most of the adults are dead. Most, Wei Gongzi. Not all.” The empty, revolting, smile came back. “Xue ChengMei fully believed we could create puppets. Impervious to pain like your fierce corpses, and just as obedient. And far less dead. He believed the Yin Tiger Seal was the device we needed to make an army of them…. There’s no need for an army, is there though, in these cells? Just a few is sufficient to guard some children…. Don’t you agree, Wei Gongzi? A few puppets who will only listen to me…. Xue ChengMei created a way to spell yin energy into ordinary iron.”

“Don’t you dare,” Wei WuXian threatened. 

“I don’t want to!” the smaller man protested. “Murdering children is really not a line I want to cross. I will if I have to, though… So… you will allow me and my hostages safe passage out of here. In a few days, I will send a signal flare letting you know where the children are.” 

There was a shuffling sound followed by loud sniffling, and then an obviously frightened Wen Yuan, tears streaming down his face, mouth gagged, hands behind his back (tied?) appeared. Behind him, holding a knife to the boys’ neck, was a strange looking Wen Ning. His eyes were completely white and his facial muscles were slack, showing no emotion. Behind them came yet another boy and a girl, held in the same manner as Wen Yuan, another white eyed adult holding them.

“What have you done to them?” Wei WuXian snarled. “Release the children immediately!”

“I can’t,” Meng Yao smiled and shrugged as if helpless. “I want to be able to leave peacefully, you see. If your son, and this is your son I understand?” He ran a hand over Wen Yuan’s head; it would be considered a caress from anyone else; Wen Yuan flinched as if in pain. “If I let your son go, you have no reason to keep me alive.”

“I have no reason to keep you alive with or without my son,” Wei WuXian snarled again. 

“But you do, Wei Gongzi…. You really do.” Meng Yao shifted into a stance that made it appear as if he was sharing a juicy piece of gossip. “You see… I needed them to be docile and to stop screaming. So I gave them a little something. Just a little, you understand. I needed them calm, not dead. But without the antidote….” He shrugged again. “There’s no saying what will happen to them, is there? You see what it did to the adults? They, of course, received the full dose.” He cocked his head to one side. “It is possible that the antidote will restore the adults, too, come to think of it…. I haven’t tested it, of course. I really wasn’t interested in seeing if this particular corpse powder in its full dosage was reversible, after all. That, and I’ve used it in conjunction with the yin iron. I would suspect it’s highly unlikely the adults will ever recover. The children should still be able to lead fairly normal lives. Assuming, of course, you cooperate with me, incentivizing me to give you the recipe for the antidote.”

“Corpse powder? You gave corpse powder to children?” Wei WuXian screamed. 

“I gave them a teensy dose!” The former Jin protested. “You can see they are perfectly fine; they are merely docile, not dead. Although… even Wen Ning here isn’t really dead. Well… he’s dead by all ways we identify someone as dead…. If I hadn’t used the yin iron on him, he’d be able to move about on his own. Not like a fierce corpse… more like a gentle corpse? Mindless but able to move about. It’s fascinating, really, to watch them try to do the things they used to do when they were alive. 

“It’s my own special formula. Xue ChengMei and I were working on it as well as a few other things….” The empty, evil smile emerged. “I wish you an enjoyable time finding everything we did, Wei Gongzi…. Well… not all…. I will be taking my research with me. In my head; as you know, I don’t write anything important down.”

“You won’t be taking anything,” Wei WuXian promised. “I’m not letting you walk out of here a free man.”

“I won’t be walking out of here any other way,” Meng Yao’s eyes glittered in the wan sunlight peeking through the cell’s half destroyed outer wall. “I walk out with my hostages? Or none of us walk out.” He turned and started towards what Wei WuXian assumed was the exit to this part of the dungeon. 

Wei WuXian stood frozen in the cell. Obviously, he couldn’t allow Meng Yao to just leave. Just as obviously, he needed the antidote and all the research on this particular corpse powder and the yin iron. His brain whirled in a thousand different directions, fruitlessly searching for a way to get everything. Help me, Baba, Mama. What do I do? I can’t trust that bastard. I need… I need to be able to open his head and extract what he knows, is what I need. Barring that… do I let him go and hope he leaves his hostages somewhere safe? I can’t trust him. So I follow? What if he hurts A’Yuan and the rest of the children if he catches me following them?

What can I do?  

Chapter Text

Mentally paralyzed with indecision, Wei WuXian didn’t register the noises he heard from the end of the corridor. 

“Wei Ying? Where are you?” That entered his brain, breaking him out of his thoughts. “Wei Ying? Can you hear me?”

“I’m here, Lan Zhan,” Wei WuXian hurried to the cell’s bars and almost casually ripped the door from its hinges. “Where are you?” He hurried down the hall and up the stairs to a courtyard where the adult GusuWen men stood as still as statues, the children were being cared for by his allies and Lan Zhan was kneeling, arms wrapped tightly around a small body, even as his eyes locked on his husband. “A’Yuan!” Wei WuXian yelled. Ignoring everyone else, he rushed to his lover and son and nearly fell over in his eagerness to embrace them. “Yuan…. You’re safe, now. Thank all the gods you’re safe.”

An eternity later, he raised his head to ask, “What happened here?”

Lan XiChen answered. “We arrived to find the city mostly cleansed. Which is not what we agreed to, Wei WuXian,” he scolded in the nicest voice possible.

“There were wards,” Wei WuXian mumbled into his child’s shoulder. “I needed to take down the array, or you would have had a hard time entering the city. And then there were a bunch of demonic cultivators; I couldn’t just leave them to do whatever to the GusuWen. And then I found out they were being held in the dungeons here, so….”

“Yes. I’m sure,” Jin ZiXuan’s agreement sounded rather dry and almost sarcastic. “We found your corpses milling about the outside of the dungeons and one rather large hole in the wall. So we hoped you had that part of the situation covered. We situated our cultivators on the other three sides in case Meng Yao was successful in evading you.” He idly kicked the prone body at his feet. “Why did you let him escape anyway?”

“Did you kill him? I need him alive! He poisoned the children. Well.. and the adults, too. And he said something about yin iron. I need to know what that is. What he and Xue ChengMei did.”

Lan XiChen flashed a triumphant look at Jin ZiXuan. “I told you we should keep him alive.” Looking back at the trio, he added, “Jin GuangYao is alive. Lan WangJi knocked him unconscious. He was going to go look for you, but A’Yuan….”

“A’Yuan is far more important than looking for me,” Wei WuXian agreed. 

“XianGege?” the child sniffed. “JiGege? Is the bad man…”

“He can’t hurt you anymore,” Lan WangJi promised. 

“NingShushu…. He looks funny and he… knife!”

“NingShushu is under a bad spell, Baobei,” Wei WuXian soothed. “Your A’Die and I and our friends will find a way to make him all better. The bad man said he gave you something bad, too. Was it a drink? Or in food?”

Wen Yuan shook his head. “I didn’t eat anything bad, Baba.”

“Are you sure? There wasn’t something he gave to Wen Ning and the other adults, and then gave some to you kids as well?”

Wei Yuan shook his head. “I don’t think so?”

A small commotion at the steps caught Wei WuXian’s attention. An older man was caressing one of the puppet’s faces. “My son,” he crooned. “What did they do to you? Why didn’t they just kill you?”

Nie HuaiSang stepped out into the daylight. “Nasty place down there.” He visibly shivered his disgust and frantically brushed off dirt, both real and imaginary, from his robes. “Meng Yao was certainly quite inventive.”

“What did you see?” Jin ZiXuan asked, kicking his half brother again.

“The GusuWen were kept in, almost, nice cells. It appears that food was fresh, not spoiled, and the latrine buckets weren’t overflowing. The blankets also looked to be in relatively good condition, too. But once you go back further into the dungeons?” He shivered again. “Blood stains everywhere. There were several large obvious torture chambers… Even I can feel the resentment creeping about.” Behind him, men carrying two stretchers covered in cloth exited the dungeon. 

“Who are they?” Lan XiChen called out.

The old man sighed. “One of the guards was insane. Meng Yao said the women would be safe.”

“SiShu!” Wei Yuan cried and wiggled his way out of his fathers’ arms. “You lived! The bad man said you were dead!”

“Not dead, A’Yuan,” SiShu cried into the child’s embrace. “Just… kept away from the rest of you. Are you alright? Did they hurt you?”

Wen Yuan shook his head. “I told Baba and A’Die that I didn’t eat or drink anything bad.”

“Did they put the bag over your mouth?” 

Wen Yuan nodded, slowly. “It felt yucky. The bad men said I had to breathe it in or they were going to do things to me and I would get dead. I don’t want to get dead, SiShu. But the bag smelled funny and it made my nose feel itchy and my mouth wanted to spit but I couldn’t.”

SiShu bowed his head, tears streaming down his face.

“What was in the bag, SiShu?” Nie HuaiSang asked gently.

“I don’t know exactly, but….” He looked up and wiped his cheeks clean. “Meng Yao said it was a version of corpse powder. The guards would fill a cloth bag with it and then tie the bag around the victim’s head. I was chosen, but my son… he volunteered for me. They kept the bag on until he stopped fighting it. By then, his eyes were completely white. Then Meng Yao took metal shards and hammered them into the base of his skull. Since then? He’s been obedient to every order that bastard makes. Sit? Stand? Walk? He only does it on command.”

“Metal shards?” Wei WuXian stood up and practically ran to Wen Ning. “In the base of the skull….” he mused, while running his hands from the back of his friend’s neck up onto the head. “Found them!” He pushed hair away to see what looked like large nail heads lying flat against the skull. 

In the meantime, Jin ZiXuan had walked over to the shrouded bodies and lifted one of their shrouds. White faced, he started gagging, then turned and retched. 

SiShu sighed. “I should have told you to not look. One of the guards was insane. He took Lan Fen, Wen Furen, away right after we got here. She screamed for a really long time.”

“Rape?” Lan XiChen asked.

“Worse,” Jin ZiXuan wiped his mouth of vomit and recovered the body. “Her belly…. It looks like her womb was cut from her body, and then the infant removed from the womb and…” He dry heaved again. 

SiShu nodded sadly. “Meng Yao was rather upset when he saw what happened. We figured it must have been particularly gruesome since he kept the guard alive and aware while he dismembered him joint by joint.”

“And the other woman?” Jin ZiXuan pointed at the second body rather than look under the cloth to see what it was hiding.

“Wen Xiang went into labor from the shock of seeing her husband transformed like that.” He pointed at one of the puppets. “Meng Yao actually tried to help her, but both she and the baby didn’t survive.”

Nie HuaiSang shivered in disgust. “Er’Ge… I think you should be responsible for Meng Yao. I would recommend you keep him asleep until we figure out a way to control him without also giving him the ability to control his puppets.” Lan XiChen nodded his agreement, a look of surprise flitting across his face. “Before you take him, though…. Strip him and put him in someone’s spare robes.” Many faces looked horrified, but Nie HuaiSang just gave them a disappointed look. “Who knows what he has shoved in his pockets? Weapons? More of that corpse powder? More of those yin iron shards? No sense leaving him with what might be the tools he uses to escape.”

None of them, really, were used to this Nie HuaiSang who stood tall (well, as tall as the short man could stand) and talked with an air of confidence and knowledge. The image of the shy, at times sly, boy who hid behind his fans and pretended he had nothing more important than lace, fans, porn, and birds on his mind was still how they saw him most of the time.

“Mo XuanYu… I don’t see your Head Disciple here. Is he still in the dungeons?”

“I don’t know,” the young man answered. “I haven’t seen him since you all left.”

“Hmmm.” The Nie heir fluttered his fan, thinking. “You’re in charge of the YunmengJiang for the moment, then. I would like you to take the GusuWen back to Lotus Pier. Hopefully Wen Daifu is recovering from the shock and will be able to look at the… puppets, for a lack of a better word, as well as the children. Especially if we find more of that powder…. She might be able to find an antidote for it.”

Wei WuXian knelt down to once again hug his child close; Wen Yuan had run from SiShu’s embrace when the Nie heir started talking about moving the GusuWen to Lotus Pier. “I don’t want to leave you, XianGege,” the boy sniffed. “Stay with XianGege.”

“Of course you can stay with me and Lan Zhan,” Wei WuXian promised. “But are you sure you don’t want to go stay with Gugu for a while?” The boy shook his entire body, ‘no’, and tried to burrow his way into a tighter embrace. Looking up at Nie HuaiSang, Wei WuXian asked, “Should we try congee before we send the children to Wen Qing?”

“Congee?” Nie HuaiSang looked genuinely confused.

“Congee is an excellent idea,” Lan XiChen agreed and turned to a disciple near him. “Look for a kitchen and have a large pot of congee started.”

“But what does congee do?” Nie HuaiSang did not stomp his feet.

“For normal corpse poisoning, it’s the standard cure. Did you not pay attention during lectures? I know Shushu has at least one lesson on it.” 

“There’s a reason I failed the course several times,” the younger man huffed with an obviously fake look of innocence on his face. “I have no interest in night hunting; when would I need to know how to save myself from corpse poison?” Straightening his mien, he added, “I will take the remaining demonic cultivators back to the Unclean Realm for interrogation. I think we have the strongest dungeons outside of Koi Tower.” With a look of apology at the Jin sect leader, he added, “Please don’t take offense that I don’t think Koi Tower is the best place for them right now.”

“I agree completely with you,” Jin ZiXuan bowed slightly. “No offense was taken.”

Wei WuXian thought back to the Sunshot Campaign and the few strategy meetings he had attended. Although Nie MingJue was technically the one running the campaign, no meetings were as concise or agreeable as this one was, even with no apparent leader. Back then, it seemed like all the sect and clan leaders were jockeying for position, glory, honor, or some other nonsense (in the general scheme of things). Arguments were frequent, tempers were short, and agreements were few. Keeping face was more important than winning the next skirmish against the Wens. Strictly obeying the traditional hierarchy of age/status was more important than following the recommendations of the ones who had been in the field facing the Wen and knew what was going on. Then, a sect heir telling sect leaders what to do would have been the prime factor for a shouting match, at the very least, or an actual sword fight at the worst. The casual insult that Koi Tower dungeons were not the appropriate place for demonic cultivators back then would have led to Jin ZiXuan bristling with fury and led to a brawl between the Jin and the Nie later. Birth status and sect status were all that mattered back then…. 

Compared to now? Competence and expertise led the way. As the topics changed, so did the expert, and no one seemed to be embarrassed or claimed they were losing face for not continuing to be the ‘expert’. It was… refreshing to see acknowledgement of ignorance to be a simple statement of fact, not a cause for a shouting match where whoever was louder expected to win. 

Having the lung capacity to yell the loudest was not an indication of expertise. 

Perhaps it was because the more outrageous and obnoxious sect and clan leaders were not here. Or perhaps it was because the people standing here had seen too much betrayal and were unwilling to force conflicts where it wasn’t necessary.

Chapter Text

Wei WuXian felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. Worry, exhaustion, relief, all seemed to set in at once. “Food sounds like a good idea in general,” he offered, hearing his stomach growl in agreement.

“XianGege’s tummy is making silly noises!” Wen Yuan giggled.

“Yes, Baobei,” he laughed. “XianGege is hungry!” He wanted to tease the child about eating him for a snack; it didn’t seem like the appropriate place or time. A quick look at the sky revealed the sun was already sinking in the western sky. No wonder I’m hungry. Actually, he couldn’t remember when he’d last eaten…. Certainly not the evening before…. Perhaps lunch? No. I didn’t eat lunch, either. Breakfast. I ate some dried fish. I think that was breakfast?

Jin ZiXuan nodded towards his new nephew, and quietly ordered his aides to start cooking. Lan XiChen objected, stating that his people were already cooking congee for the GusuWen, so it would be easiest for them to just start cooking a more filling meal for everyone else. The Jin sect leader looked pained at the idea. Pleasantries and objections and demurrals went back and forth until Mo XuanYu snorted rudely, interrupting the non-argument. “Lan ZongZhu… can your people cook food that has flavor?”

 Lan XiChen blinked slowly at the young man, sighed, and bowed. “We will leave the meal in your people’s capable hands, Jin ZongZhu.”

Sleeping arrangements were haphazard. Some opted to move into the less broken houses in the city while others simply removed bedrolls from their qiankun pouches and slept wherever the ground seemed to be less rocky. Lan WangJi had a small tent packed away, and he set it up in a relatively secluded place. It was a tight fit for two men; there was no room to move with two men and a boy snuggled in between them. But as Wei WuXian looked over his son’s head to smile at his husband, he wouldn’t have changed their cramped lodgings for a luxurious room in a palace. 

Sending a couple thousand restless dead to rest the following morning was nowhere near as taxing as cleaning the Burial Mounds, even though it was just as tedious. It would be easier if I had my Yin Tiger Seal still, Wei WuXian grumbled to himself. It would be easier still if he didn’t have a small shadow literally attached to his legs and hips, hindering his every movement. He worked in tandem with GusuLan cultivators. He played Chenqing and ordered the dead to return to their graves. There, the GusuLan would play Cleansing and Rest to send the Wen to a resentless sleep and into the reincarnation cycle. They were exhausted, physically and spiritually, when they returned to the main camp.

The sun was high in the sky; the smell of cooking meat sent his stomach rumbling. “Let’s go have some delicious food!” he grinned at his son, who nodded happily.

Delicious food would have to wait. A still pregnant, and very pale, Wen Qing was leaning on Jiang Cheng’s arm arguing with SiShu. 

The elder was crying heavily. “I want him back, too, A Qing…. For what?”

“For him to live!” she cried. Spying Wei WuXian, she yelled, “I saved your shidi instead of handing you over to my cousins and uncle. You owe us, Wei WuXian.”

“Not like this,” SiShu shook his head. “Let them go, A’Qing.”

“Let them go? Like this?” she pointed a finger at Wen Ning staring blankly. 

“Yes,” the older man swiped at his cheeks. “I want my son to be alive again; of course I do. This? This isn’t living. His heart is still. There is no blood running through his veins. He is dead.”

“They can be alive again!” she protested. “They're not dead. Not completely. I examined them. There’s still… the ability for them to come back. Wei WuXian… can you revive them? Can you bring them back to life?”

“I can try,” Wei WuXian allowed. “I can definitely bring their consciousness back. Give them control over their bodies.”

“No!” SiShu yelled. “What good is that? Can you make them alive again? Can you make it so they can live as a normal person? Will they love again? Will they feel pain again? Will they be happy again? Will they grieve again? Will they grow old and die?”

“I don’t know,” Wei WuXian allowed. “I suppose it depends on how dead the body is?”

“After the funeral, my daughter-in-law announced she was pregnant. We were celebrating the new life when Meng Yao attacked us. My son and I were captured, tied up and helpless. We were forced to watch her being run through. He took my place because…” the older man wiped fresh tears away. “Because he didn’t want to live without her. Can you guarantee that he won’t remember watching her die? That he will have the opportunity to love again, to have the chance to be a father again? That he will have the chance to grow old by his new wife’s side? What use is him being alive again if he won’t be able to live ?

“A’Qing… A’Ning had already been made a puppet when Lan Fen and their unborn child were brutally murdered. Do you think he will appreciate being brought back to consciousness only to find out that the family he loved died in such a gruesome way? Or would he rather drink Meng Po’s soup and forget this life? Would he rather exist forever without them or hope to meet them again in their next life?”

“I can’t leave him,” Wen Qing sobbed, crumpling in on her anguish, only standing because Jiang Cheng held her firmly in his arms. “I can’t….”

“You must, A’Qing. Let him go.”

“Wei WuXian…” she begged. “Can you bring him back to me? Can you…”

“I can try to make him aware again. I can try to make him live again. I don't know if I can make him alive again.” His short examination the night before had shown him that the puppets’ bodies were dead. The powder shut down their internal organs while keeping them from decaying or developing rigor mortis. But Meng Yao claimed that even without the yin iron, these puppets would continue to move on their own somehow. The yin iron nails were probably how Meng Yao controlled them. He’d have to investigate further. He needed time to examine the bodies. He needed to know what Meng Yao knew, what was in that corpse powder, what those yin iron shards did, before he could make a firm promise.

“Give me back my didi,” Wen Qing begged. “I gave you back your shidi. You owe me. A life for a life.”

“I’m sorry, Wen Daifu,” Wei WuXian knelt before her and kowtowed. “This one is incompetent.”

“Get up, you idiot,” Jiang WanYin hissed. “‘Attempt the impossible’ does not mean ‘find a way to bring the dead to life’.” To his wife, he sighed into her hair. “Qing’Er… let him go.”

“I don’t know how!” she sobbed.

“I’ll help you,” he soothed. “I’ll be right with you. Xingan… let him go.”

Chapter Text

In the end, the Nie left the Nightless City with the captured demonic cultivators. Most of the Lan took the incapacitated Meng Yao to Cloud Recesses. The Jiang and Jin, and the few Lans who stayed behind traveled with the GusuWen to their former village in the shadow of DafanShan to bury their dead, including the puppets. Wei WuXian removed the yin shards before the Lans played them songs designed to overcome the assumed effects of the corpse powder and ensure they would stay completely dead. The Jiang then took the living Wen back to Lotus Pier. The few remaining adults would be incorporated into the sect somehow while the children were placed under Wen Qing’s observation to ensure that the corpse powder would cause no damage to their developing bodies. 

Wei WuXian was ensconced in his childhood room and inspected by the healers. His use of yin energy had damaged his body and Core. Nothing that wouldn’t be healed given time, extensive meditation, regular infusions of qi, nightly playing of Cleansing, and a few monthly dual cultivation sessions. He should be returned to a normal state by early summer, they predicted, as long as he kept to their retraining schedule and refrained from using yin energy again.

As for dual cultivation…. That seemed to be an impossible occurrence. A second bed was placed in Wei WuXian’s room for Wen Yuan to sleep on. Before midnight, however, that second bed was abandoned and Wen Yuan was snuggled in between his fathers again. 

The second day, all the Wen children old enough to be in school, had been tested and placed in the appropriate classes. Wen Yuan, appropriately enough, was only able to concentrate for a short while before needing to see that at least one of his fathers, mostly Wei WuXian, was nearby. The utter panic he expressed when he couldn’t find them, was understandable. When he was calm, though, he told wondrous stories about how XianGege single-handedly broke down the walls of the dungeon and how JiGege knocked out the bad man with a single punch. The fact that there were two armies of people also helping his geges was skipped over as irrelevant or something completely forgotten.

So that second night, there were two more Wen boys who wanted to sleep with Wen Yuan, under the protection of the heroes XianGege and JiGege.

The third night a third bed was installed right next to the second so seven Wen boys could sleep together. 

By the fifth night, the Wen girls were crying themselves into panic attacks because they weren’t being allowed to sleep under Wei WuXian’s and Lan WangJi’s protection. 

So on the sixth day, Wei WuXian, Lan WangJi and the Wen children were all moved into a small house. There was a receiving room in the front and three rooms around a square courtyard. The boys were moved into one room, the girls into another, and the husbands into the third. It was supposed to give the children that sense of security and comfort they so obviously needed while giving the newlyweds privacy. Unfortunately, if a child (or four) had a nightmare, they invariably made their way around the courtyard to crawl into one of the spare beds set up in the adults’ room for that specific purpose. Or crawled over Lan WangJi to nestle in between the men, safe from all evils, both imagined and remembered.

The few Wen adults left were coping better than the children, but only slightly. Not a single family remained intact. Husbands missed their wives. Fathers missed their children. Anger and hurt only made worse when their children or grandchildren chose to stay with their heroes rather than their fathers and grandfathers. 

Wen Qing’s pregnancy remained troubled. False labor pains occurred almost daily. Her nausea returned with a vengeance. The only medical work she accepted was weekly inspections of the Wen children ensuring the corpse poison was inert. A month after Wen Ning’s death, the false labor pains became real. “It’s still too early,” she panted between contractions. Too early or not, the teeny Jiang Kong entered the world a few sichen later. He had no eyelashes or fingernails, and his skin was an alarming shade of purple, but he was breathing normally and making the appropriate amounts of angry noises expected of newborns. He also latched onto his mother’s breast rather easily and fell asleep after, sighing gently into her embrace. 

With his parents still in mourning, Jiang Kong’s one month celebration was a muted affair.

With any of over a dozen children still liable to wander into Wei WuXian’s and Lan WangJi’s room at night to calm their nightmares, and the need for one of them to oversee Wen Yuan during the day, in addition to their roles as teachers and the obligation of leading nighthunts, the two husbands were increasingly frustrated over their almost complete lack of intimacy. Kisses were quick and unsatisfying. When they finally found themselves alone, any more intimate touching needed to be done quickly and easily hidden by covering up with clothing or blankets which limited them to using their hands. 

The first day of summer brought a bit of happiness; the husbands formally adopted Wen Yuan as their son. In a quiet moment, in the pavilion where Wei WuXian first met Wen Yuan, Jiang YanLi gently hugged her new nephew, “Will you keep your birth name? Or should we call you Wei Yuan or Lan Yuan?”

When the child only froze, unable to answer, Wei WuXian hurried to reassure the boy. “You can be Wen Yuan if you want. No one will pressure you to abandon your birth family’s name. Names are important. Family is important.”

“You won’t be mad, XianGege?” Wen Yuan wiped at his nose.

“Of course not.”

“He still calls you Gege?” Jiang YanLi asked. “Not Baba?” 

Wen Yuan flinched as if struck. “A’Yuan can’t call XianGege ‘Baba’,” he whispered. “The bad man said he would kill my Baba. I don’t want XianGege to get dead. So I can’t have a Baba anymore.”

Wei WuXian patted his lap and held out his arms for his son to snuggle into. “A’Yuan… is that why you call us ‘gege’? You don’t have to worry about the bad man. He’s in prison. He can’t hurt you, or anyone else, ever again. Your XianGege is stronger than the bad man; the only reason I didn’t beat him up back then was I was trying to find a way to get you to safety first. You saw what JiGege did right? I heard he punched the bad man right in the face and knocked him unconscious with only one punch!” 

Wen Yuan pulled his head back from Wei WuXian’s shoulder, “Do you promise?”

Wei WuXian nodded, looking as serious as he could. “I, Wei WuXian, as A’Yuan’s XianGege or as his Baba, promise that the bad man will never be able to hurt anyone again.”

“Then I want to be Wei Yuan,” the boy snuggled back into his father’s embrace. 

“Wei Yuan,” Jiang YanLi smiled happily. To her brother, she asked, “Have you chosen a courtesy name?”

“Mmm,” he answered. “We looked for a way to honor his birth family. Lan Zhan suggested SiZhui.”

“Wei SiZhui,” she echoed. “What a beautiful name.”

“Lan SiZhui,” the child corrected. “Wei Yuan, courtesy Lan SiZhui.”

Wei WuXian had never heard of someone using a different surname in their courtesy name than in their birth name. But this was also a special case. He blinked back water from his eyes at how his son chose to honor the people who loved him. “A’Jie, this is my son Wei Yuan, courtesy Lan SiZhui.”

“LiAyi welcomes A’Yuan to the family.”

A few weeks after that, two of the older girls and one of the older boys moved out of the house. The younger of the two girls was able to form a Core and she was accepted as a YunmenJiang disciple. The older of the two girls received an apprenticeship to a potter. The boy moved in with an uncle. As the summer progressed, more children started to move back in with their fathers or uncles or found a permanent home in Lotus Pier as a servant or apprentice or disciple. 

By the mid-autumn festival, Zhong Qiu Jie, there were only two orphaned GusuWen children still living in Wei WuXian’s and Lan WangJi’s house: a two year old girl, Wen Xiu, and a four year old boy, Chu Qiang. Wei Yuan happily chewed on a mooncake, body swaying a bit in his enjoyment. Once it was finished, he chirped, “A’Die… A’Xiu and A’Qiang and I were talking and we made a decision.”

“You did?” Lan WangJi’s lips quirked up. He was in a fantastic mood; he had woken at his usual time to find that there were no children sleeping in his room and had proceeded to very thoroughly debauch his sleepy husband. “What is your decision?”

“You see, I don’t have any didis or meimeis. And they don’t have a gege. So I said I can be their gege and A’Qiang can be my didi and A’Xiu can be my meimei. But Jin Ling said they have to be my shidi and shimei only and I think he’s lying, but he says he’s not and A’Qiang isn’t sure and A’Xiu stuck her thumb in her mouth even though I said it was dirty from playing in the grass and she said it wasn’t ‘cause she cleaned it with her tongue.”

Lan WangJi refrained from rolling his eyes at the last bit. Wen Xiu spoke in a mixture of baby babble and Chinese and had definitely not spoken any of those words. Instead he cast an affectionate glance at his spouse. “Are you asking if your Baba and I will adopt Chu Qiang and Wen Xiu?”

“You don’t have to adopt them,” the boy hedged and reached a hand out for another mooncake. “I just want to have a didi and a meimei and they want me to be their gege and I want another cake. Can I have one?”

Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi had already discussed this prospect. While Wen Xiu was a pretty little girl with delicate features; she also had a rather prominent birthmark on her neck. There had been a few families in town who had expressed interest in taking care of a little girl who changed their minds upon seeing the mark, taking it as a bad omen for the child. Some even whispered that it was a mark of possession by a devil. Wei WuXian had immediately quashed those whispers once he heard them; wouldn’t he know, as a former demonic cultivator, if she was possessed by a demon? And wouldn’t he have exorcised it already? Chu Qiang practiced diligently with the other children his age; it appeared that he might be able to form a Core, so Jiang WanYin was pushing to simply make the boy a YunmengJiang disciple. However, Chu Qiang was extremely shy (or reserved or terrified of being kidnapped again), to the point where he spoke less than Lan WangJi had at a similar age. Chu Qiang was now spending more nights with the adults than Wei Yuan did. Lan WangJi felt the boy might be better off in a more restrained sect, like Cloud Recesses, than in one whose motto was ‘attempt the impossible’.

So it wasn't that the husbands weren’t thinking of adopting the children. Lan WangJi was hesitating because of how Wei WuXian treated them…. He’d seen how his love had fallen head over heels in love with Wei Yuan after the first kidnapping. Wei WuXian was not in love with Chu Qiang or Wen Xiu. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t be a good father to the children. It just meant… whatever it meant. 

Wei WuXian was unique in how he treated people. He had a way of differentiating those who belonged to him (and, therefore, who he belonged to) and those who didn’t. Those groups had no rhyme or reason, and could include people he’d never even met. From the very beginning, A’Yuan had been one of Wei WuXian’s people while Chu Qiang and Wen Xiu were not.

Obviously not all parents loved their children. Unfortunately. Even parents who did love their children did not always love them as equally as possible. He and Wei Ying would never treat the two remaining Wen children as less than, but they certainly wouldn’t be treated the same as Wei Yuan. 

Lan WangJi had no objections to the children, even when they climbed over him in the middle of the night to snuggle up against their XianGege, bare, dirty, cold feet pressing into his thighs. Why they never put on their shoes to walk from room to room was beyond his comprehension. 

Well… yes, he did object to the children in one way…. Wei WuXian’s Core could use a good dual cultivation session. It was simply not possible to even do the ‘only knees touching’ version because of how clingy the Wen children had been. They didn’t even have time to use their mouths on each other more than three times the entire summer. And they’d only managed to have sex, quick and therefore slightly unsatisfying, twice. The second time being that morning. Being forced to reduce their intimate moments from almost nightly to hopefully once a week they could at least put their hands on the other was… certainly not healthy, at a minimum. 

He missed them being naked and sweaty and aroused to the point of begging for release. He missed being inside his lover’s body. He missed feeling Wei Ying moving inside him. He missed the exhausted cuddling after they finished even as they teased each other about going for another round or three. 

His selfish side really, really , wanted someone else to claim Chu Qiang and Wen Xiu. 

Wei Yuan smeared the remains of his second mooncake around his mouth, only to receive a sigh and a look from his Baba that sent him scurrying off to wash his face. He then skipped out of the room to find some friends to play with.

Chapter Text

Wei WuXian turned back to his husband. “What’s the latest news from Cloud Recesses.”

“XiongZhang says he would like Wen Daifu to visit. Meng Yao has managed to overcome their latest medicines.” The former Jin had had his Core sealed even before he was removed from the Nightless City. Once in Cloud Recesses, he had been placed in a prison cell, the wrist still attached to his hand chained to the wall. His handless arm was encased in a leather contraption that strapped it down his side. The chain was long enough that he had room to pace, but was unable to reach the door or a window. Before his weekly interrogation sessions, he was given concoctions to reduce his inhibitions and ease the rigid control he had over his mind. 

Meng Yao, however, was no ordinary prisoner. Twenty something years of honing his mind meant it was challenging to break him. Lan XiChen had exhausted every resource in Cloud Recesses and was currently using drugs and methods offered up by the QingheNie. 

“If anyone can break him, it will be Wen Daifu,” Wei WuXian nodded his agreement with a frown. Wen Qing’s grief was palpable. Wei WuXian had received more than a few bruises from her fists in the first few weeks after her brother’s death. “There won’t be anything left worth keeping alive when she’s done with him.” With how angry she still was, she’d take Meng Yao apart ligament by ligament if necessary.

Jiang WanYin and Wen Qing made an official visit to Cloud Recesses where they talked trade agreements, disciple exchange programs, and finalized wedding arrangements. 

When they came back, Wen Qing was looking more serene and settled than she had since her brother’s death. “You did something,” Wei WuXian accused.

 “I did,” she acknowledged with a satisfied smile. “I visited Meng Yao at Lan ZongZhu’s request.”

“Is he still alive?”

“He was when I left,” she shrugged, as if it didn’t matter anymore. “Meng Yao was supremely confident in not only his abilities, but also mine. ‘You refused to torture prisoners for your uncle,’ he reminded me. ‘You’re a doctor committed to not hurting your patients.’” she laughed long and cruelly. “So I asked him what do doctors do when the patient has an infected wound? Do we let it kill the patient? Or do we cut him open and drain out the infection? What do we do when faced with a gangrenous limb? Do we just let it be or do we cut it off? Don’t we hurt our patients to heal them? And then… as he was considering how to respond, I asked him what made him think he was my patient?” Wei WuXian nearly fell down in shock at how matter-of-fact she sounded. “To heal my actual patients, my clansmen and myself, I would excise all the rot in the world. 

“When A’Cheng and I left Cloud Recesses, he was still talking. Eventually I suppose Lan XiChen will take pity on him and give him a knife and the opportunity to use it on himself.” She shrugged carelessly. “Until then, there are multiple scribes taking down everything he spews. I think Jin ZongZhu was very happy to see the names of Meng Yao’s operatives in Koi Tower. A similar list was sent to Nie ZongZhu. Even before we left, Nie HuaiSang had responded that he had taken care of those on the list. A’Cheng is handling the ones here. ”

“QingJie,” Wei WuXian repressed a shudder. “You are the most dangerous woman alive.”

“Don’t ever forget it, Wei WuXian: I am my uncle’s niece, after all.”

Jiang YanLi took away the choice to adopt Wen Xiu; she arrived with a veiled woman shortly after Zhong Qiu Jie. The mystery woman was a widowed seamstress in Koi Tower who was looking to have a family again. Under the veil was a large red birthmark that covered a good portion of her cheek and neck. Wen Xiu took to the woman immediately, and a day later they were gone.

Lan WangJi kept a close eye on his husband, in case the girl leaving caused a heartache. His opinions as to his husband’s feelings seemed justified. Wei WuXian moped a bit, but nothing worse than he had when the other Wen children moved out of their house. 

He approached Chu Qiang asking if he wanted to be adopted. The boy shook his whole body ‘no’. “I want my A’Die and A’Niang. I don’t want anyone else.”

At the autumnal equinox, Wei WuXian and his family packed up to make the move to Cloud Recesses. With two children in their entourage, they elected to hire a carriage for the journey. They also elected to take a detour to DafanShan to pay their respects to the fallen Wen. 

Surprisingly, there was a ghost haunting the grave site. “I know your sect pacified these bodies,” Wei WuXian murmured to his husband, as they looked at the ghost sweeping leaves.

“Mm.” 

“NingShushu!” Wei Yuan yelled happily. “You’re back!”

“He’s not back, A’Yuan,” Wei WuXian cautioned. “He’s a ghost. So he can’t talk to you.”

“That’s all right,” Wei Yuan wiggled in happiness. “NingShushu isn’t dead. Gugu will be happy again!”

Wisely or not, Wei WuXian let the boy stay ignorant. “Lan Zhan… Your sect doesn’t make mistakes like this, do they?”

“No.” The older man frowned slightly. “Unless an inexperienced disciple was set to pacify Wen QiongLin?”

“More likely, Wen Qing interfered,” Wei WuXian sighed. “She let him rise as a ghost for a reason, right? You can’t resurrect a ghost into a living person. What is she thinking?” He huffed at his bangs in annoyance.

“Wen Daifu obviously trusts you will find a way,” Lan WangJi reached out to brush the bangs back away from his lover’s face. “Wei Ying is smart.”

“Wei Ying is not smart enough to comprehend what Wen Qing was thinking.”

What Wen Qing was thinking became apparent as winter settled in on Cloud Recesses. Snow was thick on the ground when she summoned Wei WuXian to the abandoned village nestled in DafanShan’s shadow.

She was accompanied by a small troop of YunmengJiang disciples and a man lying on a litter. Upon seeing Wei WuXian’s questioning face, she jutted her chin at the prone figure. “He’s not dead.”

“I see that.” Not only did the man’s chest rise and fall, his breaths fogged up in the chilly air.

“Rather…” she continued slowly, “his body is alive. He breathes, he takes nourishment, his hands and feet react to being prodded. He has no soul.”

“No soul?” Wei WuXian leaned over the body, intrigued. He set his fingers against a pulse point and let his qi wander through the man’s meridians. “What happened?”

“He ran into a soul eater,” she snapped. “His parents can’t bear to see him like this. They can’t bear to kill him, either. They’ve agreed to let me have him. They agreed I can bring my brother home in this body.”

Wei WuXian looked up at the doctor. Then down at the body, then over towards the graves and the ghost. “You want me to put Wen Ning’s soul into this body? QingJie… that’s impossible.” Are you insane? You can’t just stuff someone’s soul into someone else’s body! Awaken a soul in a dead body? That’s close to what I was thinking back in the Nightless City. But that would have been Wen Ning’s consciousness being awakened in his own body. That’s not even a complete soul over there! I guess it’s better than the ghosts in the Burial Mounds in that I suppose he remembers most of his life. But…. What you’re asking for is impossible, QingJie. And by impossible, I do mean I don’t think it can be done. Nor should it be done. 

She glared at him. “You owe me, Wei WuXian. A life for a life.”

“QingJie… this isn’t the same thing. I just asked you to hide us from people you didn’t like either.” And put my Core into Jiang Cheng’s body, he mentally added. She knew that. They all knew that, now. Not worth bringing up again when she knew his meridians and Core were not steady still.

“You owe me!” she yelled. “I’ve never asked you for anything. Well… now I’m asking. I’m begging. I did what I could in the Nightless City. I bound his soul to his body. So now all you have to do is free it from the corpse and insert it into this body.”

“Is that all?” he responded, not even trying to hide his sarcastic tone. “Just find a way to detach a soul without destroying it and then stick in there?” He pointed a shaking finger at the soulless body.

She scoffed. “It’s not like detaching a soul is difficult. Soul trapping pouches exist for a reason. Even I know how to trap a soul in one. You just have to figure out how to reverse the process.”

He stared at her then blinked idiotically a few times.. Oh. I forgot about that. The process of splitting a soul from a body and putting it into the pouch was tedious, but not difficult. His mind whirled as he imagined various ways to do as she asked. “I need paper,” he mumbled. “I can’t keep track of my thoughts.”

“I have paper.” Wen Qing led her brother-in-law to one of the houses and sat him down with a ream of fresh paper. She ground ink for him as he wrote, scribbled out, and wrote some more. 

It took weeks of traveling between the village and Cloud Recesses before he thought he had the right answer. Weeks of evading Lan XiChen’s curious eyes and Lan Zhan’s questions. Weeks where he spent whole days holed up in the Lan library researching everything they had written about transferring souls. Weeks where he paid almost no attention to the classes he was teaching. Weeks where he ignored that his official role in the Cloud Recesses was to enhance the barriers. Weeks where he declined to go on night hunts, citing his yin weakened Core as an excuse.

The jianghe was in the middle of decorating for Chunjie when Wei WuXian finally felt confident his spell would work. “QingJie… if this doesn’t work…” he looked apprehensive. 

“I know,” she stated firmly. “You might lose A’Ning’s soul. You might kill this body completely. It might not work. I know the risks. I…” she turned watery eyes away from her brother’s ghost to look pleadingly at the demonic cultivator. “Please.”

“I will do my best,” he promised. Jiang disciples had already unearthed Wen Qionglin’s body from its grave and placed it in a house along with their former colleague. Wei WuXian began drawing his array on the floor around the bodies with first chalk, then cinnebar mixed with blood. He sat outside the array and pulled Chenqing out from his belt.

“You have to use demonic cultivation?” she asked, nervously.

“I use Chenqing to manipulate spiritual energy, too. However, in this case…. Demonic cultivation is the best way to…” ‘deal’ or ‘handle’ were the most appropriate words, if not the most polite, “work with the dead for me.”

“Your Core?”

“It’s fine,” he lied. And with the way she looked at him, he knew she knew he was lying. It was obvious she was torn, but would choose her brother over We WuXian’s Core. There was a price to pay to use demonic energy, and he was hopefully not going to pay the penultimate price. To lose his Core to bring back Wen Ning? Was it worth it?

It is. He decided. Wen Ning is absolutely worth the price of my Core. He didn’t deserve to die like that. Besides… if I do lose my Core, I can ask Wen Qing to find a way to help me recultivate one. That assumes, of course, that Lan Zhan and Jiang Cheng don’t kill me first for doing this behind their backs and destroying my Core in the process. 

I’ve cultivated with just yin energy before and I can do it again.

Chenqing’s notes were hopeful and sweet and coaxing as he performed the first spell to detach Wen Ning’s soul from the corpse into a soul trapping pouch. This was relatively easy. He relaxed and rotated his shoulders to ease the strain and accidentally saw Wen Qing kneeling and keening in a corner of the room. It was understandable, he supposed, that she would feel her loss all over again. Wen Ning’s body had been decomposing for nearly a year. The smell of rotting flesh was mostly gone, but it couldn’t be easy to see her younger brother in this state. Even wrapped in his burial cloth, now stained with dirt and other things, it must still be like a punch to the gut. 

She didn’t do anything to deserve this, either. 

After a few more shoulder rolls and a few stretches for his back, Wei WuXian raised the flute to his mouth again. This time the notes were darker as he switched from spiritual energy to resentful. 

How long he played, he had no idea. He was aware, peripherally, when the lamps were lit. He was aware on some level when they were blown out and the windows opened to allow sunlight to enter the house. He was also distantly aware of angry yelling and an aura of furious hurt combined with anxious care. They were all slightly more than wisps of reality infringing upon the edges of his consciousness. 

Eventually, the body stirred, the first movements it had deliberately made in months, and a voice raspy from disuse called, “JieJie?” 

Wei WuXian lowered his aching arms while Wen Qing scrambled across the room to embrace her brother. “A’Ning,” she cried, tears streaming down her face, “You’re alive.”

Wei WuXian unfolded his legs, wincing as the sharp, tingling, pain of returning blood flow made them refuse to obey his mind’s commands. Strong arms folded around him, picking him up, while a voice harshly whispered, ‘Wei Ying! Why are you so foolish? Why are you keeping secrets from me?”

Wei WuXian leaned his head against a strong shoulder, feeling like he’d been beaten like clothing in the wash. “You would have tried to talk me out of it. I had to try.” I had to succeed, he amended silently. “I owed them.”

“Foolish. Who are you to save everyone?” He was laid down on a bed, and sturdy hands quickly divested him of his outer clothing. “Sleep, Wei Ying,” he was commanded. 

“You have to clean up the arrays,” Wei WuXian mumbled, already halfway asleep. “It’s important. Wipe them away completely and erase everyone’s memories who saw them. Can’t let…. Dangerous.”

“I’ll see to it,” he was promised.

Chapter Text

He woke in the JingShi, feeling better than he had in almost a year. “How long was I asleep?” He yawned the last of his sleepiness away and stretched.

“Wen Ning was revived thirteen days ago,” Lan WangJi answered from where he sat mindlessly plucking his guqin’s strings. He paused to send a glowing bunny messenger off before resuming. “You have had two one-sided dual cultivation sessions to repair your Core. Are you fully awake now? You’ve been alert a few times, enough to eat and wash yourself, but you don’t seem to have remembered any of it the next time you woke.”

Wei WuXian sat up, enjoying the way his healing Core thrummed through him once again. “No. I don’t remember that. Did I talk about my notes?”

“No.” Lan WangJi’s eyes were focused only on his qin. “What about your notes?”

Wei WuXian wobbled to his feet. “I need to destroy them. The array was destroyed, right? And everyone’s mind erased?”

“Yes. Why?”

“Because this is the darkest magic I’ve ever performed.” Wei WuXian shuddered. “Can you imagine how someone unscrupulous would use this? A man like Wen RuoHan would live forever even without cultivating to immortality. Or the Son of Heaven? He would have no need to choose a successor anymore. There would be no more fighting between his sons or concubines. All he’d have to do is prepare a body. Pick one that was pleasing to him, hone it to his desires, and then when his current body was ill or aged, he could just switch his soul into the prepared body. It would wipe out that other soul completely. I think it would send that body’s former soul out of the reincarnation cycle entirely. I’m not sure, though, and I have no desire to discover if my theory is correct or not.” He shuddered again, and made his way over to his work table. Gathering up his notes, he added, “Better to just burn everything, so no one can try to repeat it. I’ll have to bother you to erase my memories, too, if you don’t mind.” After he skimmed each page, he carefully placed it into the brazier, watching it burn down to ashes.

“I do mind,” Lan WangJi growled, finally looking up from his qin to glare at his husband. “I mind that you attempted this without telling me. I mind that you nearly killed yourself and refused to tell me! If that YunmengJiang disciple hadn’t ignored Wen Daifu’s directives and sent a message to Jiang WanYin and I?” He stood in a smooth motion, belied by the furious expression on his face. “You nearly died! You were already in the early stages of qi deviation when we arrived! If it had gone on much longer? You would have, at the least , lost your Core. As it was? Jiang WanYin had to dual cultivate with you in front of almost thirty disciples!”

“I was prepared to lose my Core,” Wei WuXian started to defend himself.

“You were prepared?” Lan WangJi’s glare became glacial. “What about me? What about our son? What about your siblings? Don’t we deserve to be prepared, too?”

“I couldn’t let you stop me.”

“Stop you?” Lan WangJi abruptly slumped in on himself, golden eyes closing against the sheen of tears. “I am your husband. It is my honor and my duty to keep you safe. Even from yourself. I would have insisted you add protections to your array to keep your Core safe. Or had you seal it before you began. I would have done whatever I could to….” Lan WangJi wrapped his arms around his lover and squeezed tightly. “You are my life, Wei Ying. I don’t ever want to live apart from you. I don’t ever want to live without you.” He snuggled into Wei WuXian’s shoulder, sniffling wetly. “Yet you keep walking away from me and putting your life in danger.” He lifted his head to stare into his husband’s eyes. “Am I the one you love or am I simply someone you like to fuck?”

Wei WuXian froze at the accusation. Of course I love you struggled to come out of his mouth. I love you more than anything. More than my own life. I love you so much, I never want you to hurt. The incongruity of his actions compared to his need to keep his lover free from pain was almost laughable. “I try to keep you safe from harm and by doing so, I hurt you the most?” he whispered. I guess I forget that you love me just as much as I love you. That in your eyes, I am worth something, my life means something. You see me as something indispensable instead of expendable. “I’m sorry,” he begged. “I’m so sorry. I was… inexcusable. I love you, Lan Zhan. I love you so much, I can’t bear to see you hurt.”

“So you push me away? Don’t you know that hurts, too?”

“I know. I do know . I just… No one has put me first in their life since before my parents died. I’m still not used to it.”

“You are so willing to sacrifice yourself for those you love…. Can you learn to accept that I will always want to stand by your side protecting you? That I will help you find ways so that a sacrifice isn’t necessary? Just… talk to me, Wei Ying. You are so good at talking…. Why are you silent when it matters the most?”

“I’m sorry. I love you. I promise I’ll try.” Wei Ying moved to seal his promise with a kiss. “I love you so much,” he whispered against smooth lips. “I’m sorry I hurt you.” 

“Baba?” a young voice screeched through the JingShi. “Baba? Are you awake?” Footsteps thundered on the stairs. 

“Yes, Baobie, I’m awake.” The two men stepped back from each other, unconsciously brushing and shaking out their outfits to remove any obvious signs of being close. 

Wei Yuan shoved open the door  and stumbled over the door step, not unlike a newborn foal trying to stand. “Baba! I got to see NingShushu but he doesn’t look like Shushu and he doesn’t sound like Shushu and Jin Ling says it’s someone pretending to be Shushu but I asked him to tell me something that only he and I know and he said it just right and I think it’s Shushu but am I right or is Jin Ling right?”

Wei WuXian leaned down to hug his son’s shoulders, and squeezed gently before straightening. “I did some magic and moved Wen Ning’s soul into that new body. It will take a little time, maybe, to adjust to the way he looks and sounds now, but he is the same person he was last year.”

“All right, Baba.” The child looked up, smiling adoringly at his father. “I’m happy you’re awake. A’Die looked sad when you kept sleeping all the time.”

Wei WuXian smiled back, “And my A’Yuan? Was he looking sad, too?”

“No! A’Yuan wasn’t sad. Gugu said Baba just needed to sleep because he did a lot of hard work and needed to rest so when he woke up, he would be all better. And A’Yuan needed to let Baba sleep, and be nice and quiet for A’Die and not get into trouble and do my schoolwork and play nicely with Lan Tian and, Baba? I got to sleep in A’Tian’s bed! And his parents didn’t even mind when we stayed up past bedtime. And…” his voice dropped to a whisper, “A’Tian’s parents took us to Caiyi yesterday and we got to eat in a restaurant and they let me order meatballs and A’Tian tried one and they didn’t even yell at him so he had another and another and last night he puked! His mom said it’s because his tummy isn’t used to eating meat, so he needs to eat less until his tummy is used to it. But I didn’t puke because I eat meat all the time even though the Rules say I can’t.”

Wei WuXian started laughing about halfway through the babble. “Are you sleeping in the Jingshi tonight? Or with Lan Tian again?”

“Gugu says I can’t sleep here for a few more days. She said Baba and Diedie need time to practice cultivation with no kids interrupting but I can interrupt now because you’re going to eat lunch first and I can eat lunch with you but then I have to go play somewhere else this afternoon and I can stay in her room tonight and play with A’Kong.” Leaning in a bit, and whispering as if relaying something in confidence, “Jiang Kong is boring . I don’t like playing with him. All he does is eat, sleep, poop and roll over. Gugu gets so excited when he rolls over, but when I do it, she doesn’t get excited. She just says I shouldn’t be dirtying my robes. It’s not fair.”

“I’m sure your parents were excited when you started rolling over, too,” Wei WuXian bit his lip to stop himself from grinning. “Your die and I get excited when I see you doing something new, don’t we?”

“I guess.”

Lunch was obviously a happy time for Wei Yuan. He wiggled on his seat as he (almost politely) shoveled his chicken and rice into his mouth. He was less enthusiastic about eating the vegetables Lan WangJi deliberately placed in his bowl. 

When lunch was over, the dishes sent off to be washed, and Wei Yuan went off to find a playmate, Wei WuXian peered out from under lowered lashes at his husband. It’s been too long since we had an entire afternoon and evening to ourselves. What method will have me being held down the fastest? We can take our time later…   “Oh dear. An entire afternoon to ourselves. Whatever shall we do? Wen Daifu will probably say I should meditate….” He faked a yawn. “Maybe I should take a little nap? What does Lan Zhan think?”

Cool golden eyes leisurely appraised Wei WuXian’s slouch. “A nap?” He nodded in agreement. “Wei Ying is still tired from his efforts in Dafan.”

Wei Ying slithered to the floor in a boneless heap. “Ah… this poor man is too exhausted to walk to his bed. Would the esteemed cultivator help him?” He grinned into the floorboards. “This small one is too helpless. He can’t even remove his outer robes….” 

Lan Zhan sighed softly. “This esteemed cultivator will assist the small one to get ready for his nap.” He picked up the human bundle and tossed it gently onto their bed. As Wei Ying enjoyed the breathlessness of being weightless, strong hands began attacking his belt. It fell to the floor with a muffled sound, the leather protesting the abuse. “Does the small one sleep in his inner robe? Or his shirt?”

Wei Ying tried to stretch sexily. He wasn’t sure how well he succeeded, but it had the effects he wanted: Lan Zhan’s eyes widening just a bit in arousal. “When I’m alone… I like to sleep naked. But since you’re here… I suppose sleeping in my shirt will do?”

“Naked?” Lan Zhan’s nimble fingers easily took care of the first set of ties. “Shameless! You are in the Cloud Recesses, now. You need to adhere to our rules.” The second set of ties followed the first. “Only two layers? Scandalous.” 

Wei Ying raised his eyebrows as high as he could. “Scandalous? Perhaps Gege can show this small one how many layers are considered appropriate?” Breaking his role playing, he chuckled a bit before he controlled himself again.

Lan Zhan stood and deftly unwound his sash. “I thought I was ‘esteemed cultivator’. When did I become ‘gege’?”

“Gege is easier to say,” Wei Ying grumbled, but kept his eyes trained on the man now counting as he removed each piece of clothing. When Lan Zhan stood over his husband, completely naked, Wei Ying pretended to be shocked. “Gege calls this small one shameless? When he is the one naked and I’m the one still with clothing on?”

“That can be fixed,” Lan Zhan stated. Then proceeded to roughly strip Wei Ying of all of his clothing, too. 

Pretending to be outraged/ashamed of his nudity, Wei Ying rolled over onto his front. “Oh no! Gege has stripped this one of all of his clothing! So scary! Whatever will Gege do to me?” He wiggled his bum and spread his legs for easy access. 

Lan Zhan knelt on the bed, spreading Wei Ying’s legs even wider. “You don’t want to be kissed first?”

“I need you, Lan Zhan. It’s been too long since we were one. We can kiss later.” He sighed in relief as a cold, wet finger slid into his body. “That feels so good, A’Zhan. Lan Er’Gege… How long have you wanted to do this?” He yelped as a second finger joined the first. “I wasn’t ready for that,” he whined. “ZhanZhan is too cruel to YingYing.”

“YingYing needs to stop with the nicknames if he wants ZhanZhan to go slowly.”

Wei Ying turned his head to look over his shoulder. “Do they affect you that much? Does Lan Er’Gege get more aroused when A’Ying calls him endearments?” A third finger wormed its way into his body. “Too soon!” he yelped. 

“ZhanZhan gets more aggressive when YingYing calls him endearments.” Lan Zhan punctuated his statement with a bite to his lover’s shoulder. 

“More aggressive? Does that mean if Ying’Er calls Zhan’Er cute names, he’ll get… uf!” What he got was exactly what he wanted: Lan Zhan yanking him to his knees and pushing his way inside. “I wasn’t ready yet,” he fake wailed, real tears starting to wind their way down his face. “Lan Er’Gege is too mean to his husband, fucking him like this when he’s not ready! Too fast! Too fast!” Wei Ying’s fists grabbed onto the sheets to try to stabilize himself from the cock shoving him towards the head of the bed; they simply slid along with him. “Zhan’Er is too big for this small one to take!” He reached out, pressing his palms against the headboard just before his head smashed into it. 

It hurt being so roughly penetrated like this. Of course it hurts. He barely prepped me. But it feels…. Wei Ying moaned in pleasure as his body started to accept the thick rod battering his insides. “Fuck, Lan Zhan… you are so deep inside me…. When you finish I’m going to taste it in my mouth, aren’t I?”

“I can finish in your mouth if you want.”

“No. No! I want to feel it. I want to feel you pulsing inside me. I love it. I love knowing I did that for you.” He looked down his belly at his cock swinging wildly with each harsh jab. He let one hand leave the bed to loosely cup around himself, letting his husband push him into his hand rather than use his hand to rub his cock. “Do you know what you’re doing to me? Do you know how hard I am for you?” That push sent his head into the headboard. “You’re going to smash me into pieces, aren’t you? You’re just going to…” He yelped again. Lan Zhan had yanked him up by the shoulders so his head was resting on Lan Zhan’s shoulder. “Oh fuck! You’re so deep inside me!”

“Wei Ying can stop talking now,” growled in his ear.

“Mouths are for talking and eating,” Wei Ying teased back. “I’m not eating right now… so….”

“That is not all they’re used for.” 

Wei Ying cried out in abandonment, pushed forward so his lover could slide out. “You meanie! Stop bullying your poor husband!” He felt so empty…. “Get back inside me, right now!” he demanded.

“All right,” Lan Zhan agreed. “Turn around.” Wei Ying eagerly flopped over, spreading his legs wide, then wrapped them around his husband’s hips, as he was once again penetrated. “Kiss me,” he was ordered. “Make that mouth do something useful.”

“So mean,” Wei Ying whined with a huge smile, before arcing up to capture Lan Zhan’s lips in a sloppy kiss. 

Lan Zhan’s tongue in his mouth and cock in his ass… was there anything else he needed in this world? 

Apparently there was. Lan Zhan shifted the angle of attack until Wei Ying’s eyes rolled back in his head and he had to break away from the kiss to breathe. “Ugh,” he moaned over and over, adding in yelps when he couldn’t hold them in. 

Lan Zhan dropped his head to suck a bruise over Wei Ying’s collarbone. “Mine.”

“Yours,” Wei Ying agreed. “Kiss me,” he begged. ‘I’m close.”

“No,” Lan Zhan shifted again, so he was no longer targeting Wei Ying’s pleasure spot. “I’m not ready. I’m going to fuck you until my knees or thighs give out and then I’ll make you ride me until your thighs can’t hold you up anymore, and even then I’ll keep fucking you. You’re going to feel this for the rest of your life and remember it every time you even think to do something that might cause you to lose your life or your Core.” His thrusts increased in intensity, thighs nearly bruising Wei Ying’s ass. “You are loved. You are needed. You are worthy of love and respect. You are important for more than just what you can give to others. You are responsible for your own actions only. You are not responsible for what others choose to do.” He swiftly moved them so Wei Ying was kneeling over his lap. “Fuck me, Wei Ying. Ride me.”

Wei Ying balanced himself, one hand resting on his lover’s pecs before using the other to guide himself back onto Lan Zhan’s cock. “Uff! You’re even bigger in this position!” He sat up straighter, then leaned back so the cock pummeling his insides was directed towards the best spot. “Can you see your cock in my belly? I feel like you’re fucking all the way up to my stomach. Maybe my lungs.” He rested one hand over his lower abdomen, trying to feel Lan Zhan’s cock from the outside. “It’s dry. More oil,” he begged.

“No.” Lan Zhan denied. “You need to remember this.”

“I will,” Wei Ying sobbed. From the scratch of being too dry? Or from the pleasure? Did it matter?  “I promise to not be stupid again. I swear I won’t be stupid again.”

“What are you?” Lan Zhan dug his heels into the bedding, tried to shove his entire pelvis into Wei Ying’s ass. 

“Yours?”

“Loved,” Lan Zhan corrected. “You are loved.”

“I am loved,” Wei Ying echoed and dropped forward to hold onto his husband’s shoulders against the pounding threatening his balance. “I am needed. My worth is more than just what I can give to others. I have family who love me, students who respect me. My husband and son need me to keep myself as safe as possible.”

“Do you know that Ying’Er? Or are you just saying it?”

“I want to believe it,” Wei Ying admitted. “I know I love you. I know I never want to hurt you. I know I have, and I’m sorry. I know you love me. I know I’m not alone anymore. I know… my favorite place to be is with you, wherever you are is home.”

“You are loved, Wei Ying.” He stilled his hips. “Ride me, YingYing. Take your pleasure from me.”

Wei Ying braced himself and began raising and lowering his hips. His thighs were already feeling the strain, even as his Core replenished his energy. “I love when we do this, Lan Zhan,” he huffed and tilted his hips to find the best position for penetration. “I love how I feel when you’re so deep inside me.” He could feel his orgasm rising again. “Oh, yes, like that. Just like that.” He moved faster, precursor shocks spreading throughout his body. 

Lan Zhan moaned wordlessly, his own hips now moving again, arrhythmically to Wei Ying’s movements. 

Wei Ying felt the cock inside him, growing harder and thicker. “Fuck! How much bigger can you get?” he cried, the increased girth worsening the painful friction inside and yet making him crave even more. Lan Zhan’s tense facial muscles froze then relaxed; the friction eased as his seed flooded Wei Ying’s ass. Wei Ying followed a few heartbeats later, slumping over to lay in his own mess. “I am definitely going to feel that for the next twenty years,” he whined, only half meaning the complaint. He was not in any way unhappy at the thought of feeling stretched and sore for the next twenty years. He rather hoped they’d find a way to resume them both feeling like that every day.

“Good.” Lan Zhan sounded smug.

Chapter Text

It was odd seeing his friend’s mannerisms on a different body. It was weird hearing his friend’s speaking rhythm and shy stutters in someone else’s voice. This was Wen Ning in every way that mattered and yet…. “It’s going to take some getting used to,” Jiang WanYin muttered under his breath, echoing Wei WuXian’s thoughts, to his siblings when Wen Qing was, yet again, hugging the stranger’s body that hosted Wen Ning’s soul. 

“Because you knew the other one before?” Wei WuXian quietly asked. 

“No,” Jiang WanYin’s eyes narrowed when the hug didn’t end. “He was a rogue cultivator. His parents moved to Lotus Pier after the war. They run a candy place. I did meet him once; his parents asked me to take him in as a disciple. He was capable enough, but preferred to stay a rogue cultivator. He said he liked not having to obey someone else’s whims and rules.” In his arms, the nearly year old Jiang Kong lunged to grab a clump of hair. “No pulling hair, Baobei,” he scolded without inflection or warmth.

“I can respect that,” Wei WuXian agreed.

“I’m sure you can,” Jiang YanLi teased. “Our XianXian has his own ideas of which rules are worth following and which can be ignored.”

“Not can be ignored, should be ignored,” Wei WuXian teased right back. “Or at least adjusted for toddlers, children, junior disciples and senior disciples. Or circumstances.”

After only a week and a half of renewed life, Wen Ning wasn’t healthy enough to leave Cloud Recesses. His body’s muscles had atrophied during the long wait between the soul being eaten and the procedure to install Wen Ning’s in its place. Fortunately, this body’s Core was decently strong; between that, meditation, and the Lan healing songs, he was already walking a few steps at a time before needing to rest. 

Wen Qing finally let her brother go, eyes glistening with unshed tears. “Jie? Can I hold the baby yet?” Wen Ning asked gently. “I’m sitting and my arms are pretty steady….”

“Of course, yes.” She brushed her wet cheeks and turned to take the baby out of his father’s arms. “Kong’Er… this is your Jiujiu. Don’t pull his hair,” she scolded and sighed as Jiang Kong succeeded in grabbing his uncle’s hair and yanked as hard as he could.

Wen Ning winced. “It’s alright Jie. It doesn’t hurt.”

She untangled the baby’s fist, and smoothed her brother’s hair back over his shoulders. “He needs to stop this nonsense.”

Wei WuXian watched his friend smile down at the baby, his face looking more and more sad, despite the soft smile. Fuck. How could I forget? How hard is it to hold Kong’Er while knowing he’ll never hold his and Lan Fen’s child. As Wen Ning’s eyes started welling up, Lan WangJi pulled at his husband’s robes. Wei WuXian looked over and nodded his agreement when his husband glanced at the door. “Well, my duties have waited long enough. I’m glad to see you’re getting better.” Both he and Lan WangJi took their anger and frustration at Wen Ning’s situation out on the archery butts instead of teaching the youngest disciples. It’s not fair. None of it was fair. None of us deserved what happened to us. 

Once the new year decorations had been put away for another year, both the Cloud Recesses and Lotus Pier exploded into wedding preparations. Silk merchants brought bolts of various shades of red silk to Cloud Recesses; Jiang YanLi and Lan XiChen poured over them, selecting the best for their brothers. Then, tailors and seamstresses were hired to design the robes and embroider them in the finest gold thread Jin money could buy.  

Wei WuXian, Lan WangJi and Wei Yuan’s spring equinox journey back to Lotus Pier was shortly followed by a caravan. Lan XiChen brought the official courting gifts appropriate for one sect heir to marry another. Wei WuXian thought them rather excessive; Lan WangJi, opening the fifth box, this one of gold and jade decorations for their house, hushed him. “You are worth everything my brother has given you.”

“He’s already given me Cloud Recesses’ greatest treasure,” Wei WuXian choked out, trying, and failing, to sound light and funny. I don’t need anything more than what I already have. You represent everything I’ve ever really wanted: family, love, friendship. If all I have is you, I am the richest man in the whole world. That I have A’Yuan as well? And ShiJie, and ChengCheng and the Wens and…. I’m more than twice as rich as everyone else combined. No amount of money can buy what you give to me for free. “You’re everything I’ve ever thought I needed or wanted, Lan Zhan.” he added, feeling rather misty eyed and lovesick. 

Lan WangJi looked up from the box and blinked slowly at his husband. “Mmm.” 

Such a meaningless little sound, that mmm is, Wei WuXian smiled helplessly at his love. And yet it conveys so much…. “Lan Zhan… do you think I’ll still be in love with you like this when I’m ninety?”

“I plan to be even more in love with you then than I am now.”

Wei Ying sprinted into his lover’s arms, knocking them both to the ground. “I’m going to do you so hard for that,” he promised, hands already unwinding his sash.

“I look forward to it,” Lan Zhan’s eyes burned with lust. “Unfortunately, XiongZhang and your siblings are having dinner with us.”

“Dinner can wait,” Wei WuXian attacked the ties on his robes, struggling with a stubborn one.

“Put your clothes back on,” Lan Zhan hissed. “Can’t you hear them coming across the courtyard?”

“Fuck.” Wei Ying rolled onto his back, limbs splayed out. “They’re here already?” He hastily sat up and made himself look more presentable as Lan Zhan calmly strolled to the door to greet their guests.

There was an almost torrential downpour the morning Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi married in front of the cultivation world. Lightning and thunder interrupted the ceremony; Wei WuXian didn’t notice any of it. Despite having been handfasted for over a year, he found himself nervously tripping over himself, mentally if not physically, to have the jianghe witness his marriage to the best man in the whole universe. No veils hid their view of the other. Wei WuXian’s heart was singing ‘mine’ over and over, loud enough to drown out even Yao ZongZhu’s blustering sermons about how marriage should be restricted to be between a man and his wife and concubines. (The sermons stopped when Nie HuaiSang smiled warmly at the clan leader, brandishing a knife and started explaining exactly how Su MinShan died.)

He nearly tripped over his own legs when directed to make the first bow, finally seeing, face to face, how gorgeous his husband looked in red. My husband! His mind yelled happily. We’re already married, he reminded himself; the sloppy smile bursting from his face showing just how thrilled he was. At already being married. At being married again to this amazingly intelligent, beautiful, handsome, incredibly talented man. Mine. You’re mine. And only mine. Forever and ever until the last sunset. 

Then he was pouring tea for Lan QiRen and Lan XiChen and his hands were shaking so badly, the tea spilled over the cups’ edges. Thankfully, Jiang YanLi had plenty of cloths ready so he could wipe up the sides of the cups before presenting them to his in-laws. 

And, to his everlasting delight, he had people sitting, being served tea by his husband. My family. Jiang Cheng, as his adopted father. Jiang YanLi as his adopted aunt, sitting in the place where his mother should be sitting. He choked a little, overwhelmed emotionally. 

Just a few years ago I had nothing. No one to call my family. Nothing that was really mine other than my sword and my seal. Just two people I desperately wanted to call my siblings. Now? He sneaked a peek at his husband. Now I have almost everything a man could ask for. Almost everything I’ve ever wanted.

Baba? Mama? Are you here? Are you watching? I miss you so much. Mama… your son is happy today. So very happy. I have… I finally have a family again. One I can really call my own. Are you pleased? I hope you are. I hope you see how happy I am with Lan Zhan and Wei Yuan and…. Mama… please love them for me, too? Please watch over the three of us. Give us your blessing. Baba… I would like your blessing, too. I know most fathers would want the perfect girl for their son…. I can’t give you a daughter-in-law, Baba. I love him, though. So much. So very much. Can you accept us? Please?

It was probably his mind playing tricks on him. He knew that. He knew his parents had moved on, that they hadn’t stayed as ghosts to watch over him. He knew it. He also felt (imagined) hands resting on his shoulders, squeezing gently. He could pretend it was his parents, one on each side of him, silently giving him their love and respect and permission to marry, to love, to be loved.

Lan Zhan heaved a sigh of relief as he removed the heavy guan from his hair. Their second wedding was much… more… than their first. He was glad to finally be away from the noise, the crowd, the drunks, the comments.

The offers. 

Six men had offered up their daughters to be his concubine. Six!!! “Obviously, you will want a woman to satisfy your needs,” one claimed. “Blood heirs are very important,” stated another. “Especially since Lan ZongZhu shows no interest in marrying,” a third added.

He’d just glared at them, unwilling to do anything else to acknowledge their effrontery. 

“Lan Zhan…” his husband whined. “I can’t undo it. Help me?”

Wei Ying was mostly undressed. His formal red robes were thrown over his dressing table, leaving him in his stark white shirt and trousers. His hands were fiddling with the pins holding his elaborate guan up; he’d managed to pull hanks of hair out of it, but the things remained firmly in place. 

Lan Zhan mmmed and moved to extract the first hair pin, a lovely piece carved from white jade. “Wei Ying? Let’s go to the hot pools,” he asked quietly.